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THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE 
SPONGE FISHERIES * * * "?■ 

i. . ' • ' . ' '..'.. • . • ■ • ■ ' 

From BUEEETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES, Volume XXVIII, 1908 

Proceedings of the Fourth International Fishery Congress ; : Washington, igo8 




WASHINGTON : : : : : : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 



1910 



/ 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE 
SPONGE FISHERIES ■* * <* * 



From BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES, Volume XXVIII, 1908 
Proceedings of the Fourth International Fishery Congress : : Washington, 1908 




J> 



WASHINGTON 



GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE :::::: 1910 



V 



BUREAU OF FISHERIES DOCUMENT NO. 667 

Issued March, 1910 



.5 1910 

If ; 



Q) 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES 

J- 

By H. F. Moore 

Scientific Assistant, United States Bureau of Fisheries 



Paper presented before the Fourth International Fishery Congress 
held at Washington, U. S. A., September 22 to 26, 1908, and 
awarded the prize of one hundred dollars in gold offered by John K. 
Cheyney for the best presentation treating of the methods of the 
sponge fisheries, the influence of such methods on the supply of sponges 
and the most effective means of conserving the sponge grounds 



399 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 






http://www.archive.org/details/commercialspongeOOmoor 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Introduction 403 

I. The living sponge 404 

II. Requisites of a commercial sponge 407 

Color 407^ 

Size and shape 408 

Softness 408 

Fineness 409 

Toughness and durability 409 

Resiliency 409 

Absorptiveness 409 

III. The commercial varieties of sponges 410 

Common names in different languages 410 

Sheepswool sponges 411 

Yellow sponges 413 

Velvet sponges 415 

Grass sponges 416 

Glove sponges 419 

Reef sponges 419 

Hardhead sponges 420 

Wire sponges 42 1 

Turkey cup sponges . 422 

Turkey toilet sponges 422 

Zimocca sponges 423 

Honeycomb sponges 423 

Elephant-ear sponges 424 

IV. The Florida sponge fisheries 425 

The sponging grounds 426 

Bay grounds 427 

Rock Island 429 

Pepperfish Key 430 

New ground 430 

Withlacoochee and St. Martins Reef 430 

Anclote 430 

Highlands 43 1 

Key grounds 43 1 

New grounds 433 

West of Key West 433 

Between Key West and Bahia Honda 433 

Money Key and Pigeon Key lakes 433 

Knights Key Channel and Rachel, Grassy, and Channel Key lakes 433 

Jewfish Bush lakes 434 

Lignum- Vita? and Cotton Key lakes 434 

The Cowpens 434 

Biscayne Bay 434 

Hawk Channel . 435 

Hooking 435 

Diving 442 

B. B. F. 1908—26 401 



402 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

IV. The Florida sponge fisheries — Continued. Page. 

Killing and curing _- 451 

The sponge trade 453 

Spongebuying .. 453 

Packing 454 

Bleaching ■ 456 

Statistics 456 

Foreign sponge trade of the United States 469 

V. Other western Atlantic sponge fisheries 470 

Bahama Islands 470 

Cuba 472 

Minor localities 474 

Honduras .-.. 474 

Nicaragua 475 

Mexico 475 

Colombia 475 

Venezuela 475 

Jamaica 475 

Santo Domingo 475 

VI. Sponge fisheries of the Mediterranean and contiguous waters 476 

Spain and France 477 

Adriatic Sea 477 

iEgean Sea and Asia Minor 478 

The Levant 480 

Egypt 480 

Tripoli 48 1 

Tunis 482 

Lampedusa and the Sicilian Sea 483 

Algeria and Morocco 484 

Methods of the fisheries r 484 

Wading u 484 

Nude diving 484 

Harpooning 485 

Dredging or trawling 486 

Machine diving 489 

Cleaning and curing. _-_ 491 

VII. Various minor localities 491 

Philippine Islands 49 1 

Australia and New Zealand 492 

Other Pacific islands 493 

Indian Ocean 493 

Mid.- Atlantic Ocean 493 

VIII. Conditions and effects of the sponge fisheries 494 

Depletion of the beds . 494 

Hooking and harpooning 497 

Nude diving 498 

Machine diving 498 

Dredging or trawling 502 

IX. Regulation and protection of the sponge fisheries, with particular reference to Florida 503 

Measures in force 503 

Measures proposed 505 

X. Conclusions and recommendations as to the Florida sponge fishery 509 

Bibliography 511 



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Plate XXVIII 

Specimen of rock from the sponge beds off Anclote Key, Florida. 
This rock bears 1 3 species of commercial and noncommercial sponges, 
besides corals, sea-feathers, starfishes, crabs, and other animals char- 
acteristic of the fauna of the sponge beds. One-fifth natural size. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 

By H. F. MOORE, 
Scientific Assistant, United States Bureau of Fisheries. 



INTRODUCTION, 

Sponges are known to the general public almost solely from their use in 
the toilet, one of their minor applications'. They are vastly more valuable 
in/the arts. In many trades they are practically indispensable, and despite 
long effort and the ingenuity of inventors no satisfactory substitute has ever 
been produced and it is doubtful whether one can be found. The properties 
that give a sponge its value are many, they are found in combination in no 
other natural or artificial product, and the perpetuation of the sponge supply 
is of no small moment to civilization. 

The commercial sponges and their congeners are of wide distribution in 
the warmer waters,/ but the fisheries as at present developed are almost 
entirely restricted to the Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of 
Mexico, and waters contiguous to these. Recently attempts have been made 
to establish a fishery in Australia, within the last year (1908) a few sponges 
have been shipped from the Philippines, and it is stated on rather vague 
authority that sponges resembling a poor quality of the Mediterranean toilet 
are now being fished on the coast of Madagascar. But the product of these 
regions is negligible in the markets of the world. 

The Mediterranean fishery is of considerable antiquity, and it now pro- 
duces over half in value of the world's supply, though it is impossible to obtain 
accurate statistics for all countries on its border. The newer fisheries of the 
American coast produce by far the largest quantity, but a predominance of 
lower-priced kinds reduces the value to about three-fourths of that of the 
Mediterranean fisheries. The following table gives approximately the world's 
annual yield at the present time: 

Mediterranean and contiguous waters (partly estimated) $2, 039, 000 

Florida, 1903-1908 (average) L. 555,000 

Cuba, 1903-1906 (average) 374,000 

Bahamas, 1900-1905 (average) 520,000 

Other localities (estimated) 10, 000 

Total 3, 498, 000 

403 



404 BULLETIN OP THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

This paper, in conjunction with another on sponge culture, a is designed to 
furnish a brief, but fairly comprehensive, review of present knowledge of com- 
mercial sponges, the geographical distribution of the fisheries, the methods 
employed, the effects of those methods upon the natural beds, and the meas- 
ures which appear to be necessary for the protection and conservation of the 
supply. 

Concerning the qualities and the characteristics that distinguish sponges 
of different grades and values, the consumer is probably less informed than 
in respect to any other natural product in general use, and he is frequently 
imposed upon. In many cases it is difficult for even an expert to identify the 
different local varieties, though there is much difference between them in 
the qualities' that fix their value for practical use. The distinctions by which 
the various grades can be recognized are, moreover, such as to be difficult or 
impossible of expression in words. For these reasons the illustrations of this 
paper have been prepared, with especial care, to supplement the descriptions. 
The sponges pictured are typical specimens of the numerous local varieties 
and without exception represent sponges now on the market. 

As the purposes of the paper are mainly practical and economic, the 
discussion of the scientific status of the various kinds of commercial sponges, 
their general biology and morphology, has been reduced to the minimum nec- 
essary for a proper understanding of their nature and the problems which 
must be solved before the regulation of the beds can be placed on a rational 
and effective basis. The question of the scientific classification of the com- 
mercial varieties will be taken, up some time in the future, when the accumula- 
tion of material and certain experimental data may offer some guarantee of 
better results than have been attained previously. The subject is one of 
extreme difficulty, and it is not believed that it can be successfully attacked 
without the assistance furnished by a well-equipped laboratory in the vicinity 
of the sponge grounds. 

I. THE LIVING SPONGE. 

To most persons familiar only with the sponges of the shops, the animal as 
it comes from the sea would be entirely unrecognizable. (Plate xxvni.) It is 
a solid looking, rather slimy feeling, fleshy body, varying in color from light- 
greyish yellow through a considerable range of browns to black, and in form 
either cup-shaped, spheroidal, or cake-shaped, according to the species, its age, 
or the environment in which it grew. In general, in appearance and consist- 
ency and the manner in which it cuts with a knife, a living sheepswool sponge 
is not unlike a piece of beef liver, perforated with holes and canals. 

o Moore, H. F.: A practical method of sponge culture, Proceedings International Fishery Con- 
gress, in Bulletin U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, vol. xxvm, 1908, p. 545-585. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 405 

The sponge of the markets is merely the skeleton, the supporting frame- 
work, which gives strength and form to the soft gelatinous tissues of the living 
animal. It is composed of a substance similar in general chemical and physical 
properties to silk, horn, and chitin, the basic material which forms the shells of 
insects and crabs. This material is distributed in a fibrous network, usually 
in accordance with a definite general pattern in each species; the diameters of 
the fibers, the sizes of the meshes, and the relations existing between the sev- 
eral parts lying within more or less well-fixed limits. In addition, the main 
fibers always contain more or less foreign matter, sand grains, spicules, etc., 
embedded in their substance in the form of a core. 

A casual examination of the living sponge will show it to be covered by a 
well-defined skin raised at more or less regular intervals into blunt little cones 
over the ends of the skeletal fibers, by which it is supported. Distributed 
over the surface, sometimes rather generally, sometimes locally, are sieve-like 
membranes, whose small pores lead into cavities lying just below the skin. 
From these cavities canals lead into the substance of the sponge, opening by 
numerous minute pores into as many small pear-shaped chambers, which from 
their opposite ends discharge through larger openings. If the canals leading 
from these could be followed, it would be found that, uniting with their fel- 
lows, they gradually increase in diameter until they open upon the surface of 
the sponge in one of the large conspicuous pores known as "oscula," or, as the 
spongers call them, " eyes." The oscula are sometimes more or less generally 
distributed, sometimes localized, according to the species, and each is sur- 
rounded by a smooth membrane capable of expanding or contracting in such 
manner as to vary the size of the opening. 

This canal system is one of the most important organs, as well as the most 
characteristic feature of the sponge. It is the sole means of feeding and prac- 
tically the sole means of respiration. Its method of functioning is as follows: 
The pear-shaped chambers described above are lined with cells of a peculiar 
character, collar cells, as they are called, each provided with a little lash or cilium 
projecting into the chamber and beating rhythmically in such manner as to set 
up a current in one direction. The mechanical effort of each is feeble, but the 
joint action of the untold numbers of such cells in a sponge sucks water through 
the small orifices in the surface, first described, into the ciliated chambers and in 
turn forces it into the successively larger canals until it finds vent through the 
oscula . The water, with its contained food and oxygen, therefore enters the 
sponge through the small superficial pores and leaves it by the large ones. 
Excluding from consideration the foreign bodies, shells, coral, etc., which the 
sponge often overgrows and surrounds, the whole interior, save the skeleton and 
spaces of the canal system, is occupied by tissue s which are neither of many 



"A 



I 



406 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

varieties nor strongly differentiated. There are certain cells called "spongo- 
blasts " which secrete the material of which the skeleton is composed. Collar 
cells and other epithelial elements line the ciliated chambers and the several 
canals with which they are in communication. The outer surface and the 
subsuperficial or subdermal surfaces are covered with a single layer of flat cells. 

The main portion of the fleshy part of sponges is made up of what is known 
as ground substance, a jelly-like material, similar to that found in the umbrella 
of jelly fishes, without cellular structure, but containing connective tissue cells. 
Muscle cells are found in the skin, the canal walls, and the membranes around the 
peripheral pores, and nervous and sensory cells occur in association with them, an 
explanation of the limited sensitiveness and contractility which are noticed in 
handling live sponges. 

Concerning the life histories of commercial sponges we know but little. In 
some species, at least, the sexes are separate, the females greatly preponderating, 
and the young are produced mainly if not solely from eggs. The young are, for 
a time, minute free-swimming organisms which may be carried considerable 
distances by the currents, and they are still very minute when they at last settle 
down for permanent attachment. At this stage, like oyster fry, they are liable 
to be covered and suffocated by comparatively thin deposits of sediment, and the 
object to which they can successfully attach must be hard and clean. It follows 
from this and from the fact that much of the sea bottom is more or less covered 
with soft deposits, however thin, that a vast majority of the young sponges fall on 
unsuitable bottom and are lost. This accounts in many cases for their irregular 
and sparse distribution on many rocky bottoms which superficial examination 
would indicate as favorable. The natural bars are undoubtedly capable of 
supporting a much heavier growth than they usually bear, and if partially 
grown sponges could be placed on them, as is proposed in the system of sponge 
culture elsewhere described, their productiveness could be enormously increased, 
as these deposits of sediment, fatal to the spat, would prove innocuous to larger 
individuals. 

The rate of' growth of sponges under undisturbed natural conditions is not 
definitely known, but the experiments recounted in another connection" indi- 
cate that it is slower than is generally supposed by the spongers. There is very 
good reason to believe that the average annual increase in diameter of sheeps- 
wool sponges in Florida waters is not greatly in excess of 1 to 1 % inches. The 
rate varies somewhat in different localities and under different conditions. 
The average 6-inch sponge is probably not far short of four years old, though 
possibly the early growth may be more rapid than the experiments indicated 
for later stages. 

"Moore, H. F., op. cit. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 407 

Commercial sponges are very susceptible to the influences of environment, 
and when transplanted from one place to another speedily change in character. 
If grown in the midst of vegetation they become coarse and open in texture, of 
irregular shape, with long superficial processes and protruding oscular tubes. 
If raised high above the bottom the texture becomes more dense than that of 
neighboring bottom-grown specimens. Individuals suspended artificially on 
wires or growing naturally on gorgonians (sea feathers) tend to become spherical, 
and those torn loose to roll freely over the bottom assume the same shape, but 
develop harsh, very tough surfaces. 

The commercial sponges of Florida, especially the sheepswool, yellow, and 
velvet sponges, can not live in water which falls for any considerable period 
much below oceanic jsalinity . Observations made in connection with sponge 
culture and on the natural beds indicate that the allowable minimum of salinity 
is reached when the water fails to a specific gravity of about 1.019 or 1.020. 
Exposure to the air is tolerated for considerable periods, especially during cool 
weather, and sponges grow naturally in situations where they are occasionally 
bared at low tide. From this extremely shallow water, the distribution of com- 
mercial sponges in Florida extends certainly to depths of no f eet and probably 
to much deeper water, as in the Mediterranean, where they range to a depth of 
500 to 600 feet. Of the food of sponges practically nothing is known. That it is 
taken in through the canal system and that it must be in a finely divided state 
is practically certain, but of what it consists and by what tissues it is absorbed 
is unknown. The so-called "roots" of sponges perform no other purpose than 
that of anchorage and are not special organs of nutrition like the roots of plants. 

There appear to be few, if any, important natural enemies of commercial 
sponges, though perhaps they are subject to the attacks of microscopic organ- 
isms, producing certain epidemics which are ordinarily attributed to other 
causes. Crabs are ofter found in cavities burrowed in their substance, but despite 
popular belief to the contrary, I do not think that the chambers are actually 
excavated by the crabs. They probably find them ready-made and when they 
crawl in the pressure of their shells prevents filling up, or possibly expands the 
cavity. 

II. REQUISITES OF A COMMERCIAL SPONGE. 

The qualities of the skeleton affecting the commercial value of sponges are 
color, size and shape, softness, fineness, durability, resiliency, and absorptiveness. 

Color. — The color is the consideration of least intrinsic importance, though 
for purely esthetic reasons it exerts a considerable influence on the price. The 
most desired color varies somewhat with different classes of sponges, but in 
general the lighter tones are preferred. For bath purposes a pale yellow appears 
to be most in demand, and this requirement is catered to by various processes 



408 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

of artificial bleaching. Sponges of the same species will frequently differ in 
color in different localities. The sheepswool of the Florida Keys, for instance, 
has a deep reddish brown "root" and interior, while this is lacking in Rock 
Island specimens, and the latter are also more grayish externally. As these 
color characteristics are correlated with differences in other qualities, especially 
durability, they are of value in distinguishing the grades. In general the 
sponges of commerce, i. e., the skeletons, are yellow, light brown, or brownish 
gray. 

Size and shape. — The most desirable size and to some extent the shape 
depend upon the purpose to which the sponges are to be put. For surgical 
purposes small ones are required, for toilet use a medium size, while for clean- 
ing vehicles and cars a large sponge holding a considerable quantity of water 
is necessary. Sponges up to about 8 inches in diameter are commonly used 
entire and called "forms," but above that size they are usually cut into pieces 
and known commercially as "cuts." Most or all American sponges of a less 
diameter than 4X to 5 inches are of comparatively little use and value, but 
the Mediterranean grades find a market in even the smallest sizes. Some 
species possessing all the other requisites are debarred from the markets solely 
by their shape. 

Whatever the form of a sponge, to be of commercial value it must be regu- 
lar, more or less massive, and free from long processes and digitations. Certain 
of the inferior Cuban sheepswool sponges are about the only exception to this 
rule, and in the case of these the long, teat-like projections which carry the 
oscula at their summits are usually cut off more or less close to the massive 
base from which they rise. Under normal conditions all commercial sponges 
are either spheroidal, cake shaped, conical, or cupped. The gradations between 
these shapes are infinite and each species presents great variety, due to age, 
environment, and perhaps individual tendency. The shapes assumed by the 
various species will be considered in the descriptions of the several commercial 
varieties. 

For general purposes the most desirable forms are the spheroidal and cake 
shaped. In applying the glaze to pottery, however, and in other similar work, 
a smooth, flat surface is desired, and this is generally obtained either b)^ cutting 
up the more massive forms or by taking pieces from a smooth-surfaced cup- 
shaped sponge like the Mediterranean elephant's ear. The American rough- 
surfaced conical and cup-shaped sponges, like the Anclote grass, are usually 
cut, invariably so when they are of large size. 

Softness. — The more desirable grades of sponges, other things being equal, 
are those which are softest, the cheaper, inferior grades being generally, though 
not always, more or less harsh. This quality depends upon the thickness and 
arrangement of the fibers, the amount of foreign matter included in them, and 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 409 

the openness of the canal system. Sponges with comparatively slender fibers, 
with the microscopic meshes rather open, with a small amount of foreign mat- 
ter included in the spongin, and with an open canal system, are the softest. 
Those in which the fibers are heavily laden with sand are invariably harsh. 

Fineness. — Fineness depends upon the macroscopic rather than on the 
microscopic arrangement of the skeleton, though the slenderness of the fibers 
is a factor. The Matecumbe sheepswool is one of the softest of sponges, but 
its open structure makes it appear coarse when compared with Mediterranean 
kinds. Fineness in the same species varies more or less with the environment 
under which the individual is produced. 

Toughness and durability. — These qualities depend upon both the micro- 
scopic and the macroscopic characters of the sponge skeleton, and also appar- 
ently to some extent upon its chemical properties. These factors vary with the 
sort or species and in the same sort are subject to environmental differences. In 
any given species the looser the general structure and the larger and more numer- 
ous its canals and subdermal spaces, the more easily it is torn and the sooner 
it breaks down in use. The loose, open-textured sheepswool sponge of Bis- 
cayne Bay is much more quickly destroyed in a given service than is the denser 
Rock Island variety. That chemical factors also enter into the matter is appar- 
ently indicated by the greater tenderness of the red-rooted Key sheepswool as 
compared with equally open selected specimens from the Bay grounds not 
exhibiting this peculiar color. 

Resiliency. — Upon this quality depends very largely the value of a sponge 
for economic purposes. Sponges are generally more elastic when dry and more 
compressible when wet, and if under the latter condition they return promptly 
to their original shape when the compression is removed they are more useful 
than if sluggish or "soggy" in their reaction. Resiliency depends upon the 
size of the fibers and the arrangement of the microscopic mesh work, and also 
upon the thoroughness and manner of cleaning. Specimens poorly cleaned and 
containing much "gurry" are sluggish in returning to shape after compression. 

Absorptiveness. — This quality depends upon a combination of softness, fine- 
ness, and resiliency, and is the fundamental property upon which the usefulness 
of a sponge depends. A sponge that takes up little water or that absorbs it 
slowly or that drains quickly after it is removed from water is inferior for all 
purposes to one having the converse properties. 

Water is absorbed by the capillarity of the mesh work, and the finer and 
closer this is the more water taken up and retained. The fibers themselves 
absorb a small amount of moisture, but this is not available for mechanical 
purposes, as it is released by evaporation only. Resiliency assists in absorp- 
tion by promptly opening the meshes after compression, so that they act mechan- 
ically like so many minute pumps. The most copiously and quickly absorbent 



4io 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



sponges have fine meshes, slender fibers, and generally close texture. Large 
canals and cavities decrease the amount of water which can be absorbed in 
proportion to the size of the sponge, though they do not necessarily affect the 
rapidity with which it is imbibed. 

' III. THE COMMERCIAL VARIETIES OF SPONGES. 

Both the scientific and commercial classifications of economic sponges are 
much confused and unsatisfactory and the two are mutually contradictory. 
Sponges considered by zoologists as of the same species or variety are separated 
into different commercial grades or species often differing widely in value, and, 
conversely, the trade often recognizes under the same name species that are 
undoubtedly zoologically distinct. These animals are so extremely plastic and 
susceptible to the influences of local environment, changing form, appearance, 
and character so completely under changing conditions, that it appears hopeless 
to expect a satisfactory scientific arrangement until present methods of research 
and nomenclature are completely departed from. In the present paper, 
designed as it is for economic purposes, the commercial classification is followed, 
the probable scientific names of the sponges described being indicated but 
incidentally. 

In the following list are given the names commonly used in several lan- 
guages, but the commercial classification is much more complex than is here 
indicated. All of the principal kinds are further subdivided in the markets 
according to geographical origin, quality, and even the methods by which they* 
are taken. Among American sponges, in addition to the various geographical 
and local designations we have "forms," "cuts," and "seconds," while in the 
Mediterranean there are "fines," "commons," "seconds" (ecarts), plongees, 
harpoonees, etc. 

Common Names of Commercial Sponges in Different Languages. 



English. 


French. 


Cuban. 


German. 






Hembra. 

Macho fino. 

Farao; aforrada. 

Macho cueva. 

Macho peludo. 

Macho d u 1 c e ; macho 

guante. 
Macho dulce. 
Machito fino. 






Boulet 






















Glove 




















Coupe torque; fine douce 
de Syrie; d&Archipel. 




Toilet.. . 




schwamm. 




Chimousse; fine dure.de 
Syrie; fine Grecque. 

Fine de Syrie ; fine 
blonde ; commun de 
l'Archipel, etc. 












tian, etc. 
Elephant ear; wash rag; laparot- 






omy; flat potter's. 






schwamm ; Levantiner- 
lappen. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 
Common names of commercial sponges in different languages — Continued. 



411 



English. 


Italian. 


Greek. 


Various. 






Melati ; fina eklekta _ 
Melati. 


Abiund (Syria). 

Achmar (Syria) 
mouri (Turkey) ; 
jemi (Tunis), 

Cabar (Syria). 






Spugne da bagno; Le- 
vantine, 
Spugne zinracca 

Spugne da equine _ _ 






tsi- 


Bath ; honeycomb ; horse ; Vene- 
tian, etc. 


Hondxa (Hydra) ; kapa- 
dika (Calymnos). 

Psathouria ; lafina (Hy- 
dra) ; lagofita (Kalym- 
nos). 


had- 


omy; flat potter's. 







SHEEPSWOOL OR WOOL SPONGES. 
Hippos pongia canaliculata gossypina. 

The sheepswool sponges, which are found in the Gulf of Mexico, the Carib- 
bean Sea, and the adjacent parts of the Atlantic Ocean, all appear to belong to 
this variety, with the possible exception of certain specimens from Cuba, con- 
cerning which I am uncertain. They exhibit wide local variation, are very 
sensitive to environment, and when transplanted from one locality to another 
undergo marked change in character. The whole surface of the skeleton is 
tufted with fascicles of fibers, which are longer and more fimbriated in the shoal- 
water specimens. The oscula are confined to the upper surface, are large and 
comparatively few in number. They are usually surrounded with a circle of 
tufts and are often slightly, sometimes enormously, elevated on cones or tubes. 
The color of the living sponge is black, becoming brownish'at the base. These 
sponges grow to a large size, 1 8 inches or more in diameter, are soft, absorbent, very 
durable, and of good shape. They are unequaled for general bath purposes 
and for use in the arts. They are employed generally for cleaning carriages, 
cars, and other highly polished surfaces where size, softness, durability, and 
great capacity for holding water are required. The larger perfect forms are 
used as .gun swabs in the army and navy, or are divided and sold as "cuts" 
for use by tile and brick layers, painters, potters, and other artisans. The 
market varieties are as follows : 

Florida Rock Island (pi. xxx and xxxi) . — These, the best and highest -priced 
sponges of North America, are found in the Gulf of Mexico, on the west coast 
of Florida between Johns Pass and St. Marks. They are generally rather flat 
and with a broad base, closely knit, soft and strong. The surface color is grayish 
brown and the root and interior are little tinged with red. Those from deeper 
water are superior to shallow-water specimens in texture, density, and durability. 

Florida Key wool (pi. xxxii and xxxm) . — This variety comes from the Key 
grounds elsewhere described, and is next in value to the Rock Island, which it sur- 
passes in softness, especially if from near Matecumbe Keys, but does not equal in 



412 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

strength, durability, or capacity for holding water. The surface color is paler, and 
the interior and often the insides of the oscula and the surface channels are colored 
a rather bright red. The surface is generally well felted, but the interior is 
more open and the fibers weaker. It tends to grow proportionally higher than 
the Rock Island sponges, especially when young, and the base is narrower, an 
inverted pineapple shape being common. 

Bahama wool (pi. xxxiv and xxxv) . — This is generally inferior to either 
the Rock Island or the Key wool, being coarser and more open and less durable 
and absorbent. The softest and best specimens come from the vicinity of Abaco. 
The shape is generally rather flat and the upper surface much tufted. Those 
from the vicinity of Andros Island are generally rounder than from other parts 
of the archipelago and the lamellae tend to become thicker and less tufted on 
their free edges, sometimes remotely resembling the velvet sponge. 

The Bahama wool sponges are pale yellow superficially and those from 
some localities have pale vermilion roots, while from other places they are 
practically untinged with that color. 

Cuba wool (pi. xxxvi). — The ordinary Cuba sheepswool sponge has the 
same general characteristics as the Bahama variety, though inferior to Abaco 
specimens. Another form which is not uncommon, and which rather insufficient 
material indicates may be zoologically distinct from the other sheepswool 
sponges, has a rather flat incrusting base from which arise as many as thirty 
oscular tubes, sometimes reaching a length of 8 inches and 2 inches in diameter. 
These tubes swell somewhat toward their middles and tend to anastomose. 
Certain specimens indicate that this anastomosis may become so complete as 
to form fluted columnar sponges, twice as high as thick, with long stout oscular 
tubes on the upper surface. Lendenfeld does not recognize this as a distinct 
zoological variety. 

Mexican wool. — This is the poorest of the sheepswool sponges, being coarse, 
loose of texture, much more tender than those that have been mentioned, and lack- 
ing in resiliency. Its surface color is dark-brownish gray and the root and interior 
are dull rusty red. In shape it is rather high, grov/ing from a narrow base, and the 
oscular pores on the upper surface are large, open, and ragged. These sponges grow 
in the shallow waters, but it is stated that a type much superior is found in 
deeper water on certain parts of the coast, especially about the island of Cozumel. 

Honduras wool. — On the coast of British Honduras is found a wool sponge 
which resembles the Mexican but is of slightly better quality. It has in most 
cases the same dull red or brown root and interior and the ragged oscular open- 
ings on the top. It has a lighter superficial color than Mexican specimens and 
appears to be rather stronger and more resilient. The sponges are usually 
irregular in shape, but this quality will probably be found improved in deeper 
water, those now taken being from the shallows. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 413 

Other localities. — Sheepswool sponges are taken to a limited extent com- 
mercially, or are known zoologically, in Honduras, at the island of Gonaves, 
Haiti, and at other places in the Caribbean. In the Philippine Journal of Science 
Seal describes a wool sponge from the Philippine Islands. The specimen he 
exhibited to me had the appearance of a Bahama sheepswool, and had been 
used for bath purposes. It is not unlikely that it was imported and not 



indigenous. 



YELLOW SPONGES. 



Under this name are known sponges of several zoological species and 
varieties, some of which receive also other commercial names, according to 
quality, size, and locality. Though differing much in details and special quali- 
ties, the yellow sponges have these characters in common: They are highly 
elastic and resilient, more so than any other American sponges with the possible 
exception of the Anclote grass, but they are harder than the wool sponges, less 
absorbent, and drain more freely. They are regular in shape, attractive in 
appearance, and grow to a diameter of about 18 inches, though this size is not 
common. The color is a rich yellow or yellowish brown, in some localities tinged 
with rust red or chestnut. The surface is never furnished with the long fibrous 
filaments characteristic of the sheepswool, but is covered with a nap of short 
hairs of uniform length and lying in a uniform plane. Though less durable than 
either the sheepswool or the velvet sponges, the yellow sponges are excellent for 
many purposes in the arts, and when bleached make attractive and soft, cheap 
bath sponges. 

In the living condition they have smoother surfaces than the sheepswool, 
and are very dark brown on top, becoming yellower on the sides. The pseud- 
oscula, vents, or "eyes" are in some varieties situated on the summits of low, 
rounded cones and in others lie in the general level of the upper surface. They 
af e never surrounded by circles of fimbriated tufts as in the sheepswool, or com- 
pounded as in the velvet sponge. They are generally large and conspicuous. 
The commercial varieties of yellow sponges are as follows: 

Florida Key yellow (pi. xxxvn, xxxvm, and xxxix) . — This is the finest grade 
of yellow sponge, being softer and more durable than the Anclote yellow or the 
foreign varieties. The best come from the vicinity of Matecumbe Keys, where the 
common species is Hippospongia equina elastica Lendenfeld. This species is 
massive, cake-shaped, or, commonly, in the form of truncated cones attached by a 
narrow base. The lamellae form a network lying in a uniform surface, are usually 
more or less thickened at their free edges and inclose numerous more or less uniform 
polygonal, circular, or meandering orifices. The surface of the skeleton is more 
continuous than in most of the other American sponges. The vents or "eyes" 
usually lie in the general level of the upper surface, but are sometimes, especially 



414 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

in the larger specimens, raised on soft rounded' cones or craters, the rims of 

which are generally interrupted in one or two places. 

^ Another variety of Key yellow sponge is Euspongia irregularis pertusa, the 

common form of the Anclote region and Cuba, but this is inferior and less 

numerous. 

Anclote yellow (pi. xl and xli). — These consist almost wholly of the zoolog- 
ical variety last mentioned. They are more massive than the common Key yellow 
and are almost invariably attached by a broad base, from which the sides and 
tops rise in a more or less regularly convex surface, bearing low, broad cones or 
lumps on the summits of which the oscula open. The latter occur more or less 
over both sides and top, and are not confined to the upper surface as in the pre- 
ceding species. The surface of the skeleton is more uneven and lumpy than in 
Hippospongia equina elastica and the superficial villi of fibers are longer and 
more tufted and frequently connected with one another by an irregular loose 
network of fine fibers. 

These sponges are harsher and less compressible than the Key yellow and 
less desirable for commercial purposes. 

Bahama yellow (pi. xlii and xliii). — There are two common species of 
Bahama yellow sponges. One is Euspongia irregularis pertusa, the common 
Anclote form, from which it differs mainly in the more numerous oscula and the 
brighter yellow color of the skeleton. 

The other is Hyatt's Spongia agaricina subsp. dura, which Lendenfeld 
apparently erroneously includes with his Hippospongia equina meandriformis. 
This sponge is more open in texture and less strong than the foregoing, but softer 
and more quickly absorbent. It is spheroidal in shape, though often one-sided 
on account of lateral attachment to the rocks, and the free ends of the lamellae 
lie in a common surface as in the velvet sponge, but the exterior faces, 
instead of being felted and compact, are covered with a nap of loose-ended 
fibers, giving the whole surface a villous appearance and a rougher feel. The 
lamellae consist of radially arranged/club-shaped bundles connected by tangential 
buttresses or lugs, making a weak structure easily torn into radial shreds. The 
color is light brown. The oscula are single, not compound as in the velvet 
sponges, and are scattered over the upper surface and occasionally on the sides. 
Hyatt says that this is the " hardhead," but so far as I have observed the spongers 
now class it as "yellow." It appears to be particularly common near Andros 
Island. 

The common yellow sponge of the Florida Keys is also found in the Bahamas, 
but does not appear to be generally included among shipments of yellow sponges. 

Cuba yellow (pi. xliv) . — The common Cuba yellow sponge is the same species 
as the Anclote yellow, Euspongia irregularis pertusa* from which it differs mainly 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 415 

in its brighter color and more cavernous structure, the oscula being more numerous 
and the blunt cones in which they are situated being separated in the skeleton 
by clefts entering rather deeply into the body of the sponge. 

A variety similar to the Key sponge is found on the north coast of Cuba. 

Honduras yellow. — This commercial variety, which comes from British 
Honduras, is the same zoologically as the Key yellow. It resembles the latter 
in surface appearance, but is harsher, less compressible, more open in texture, 
weaker, and less durable. In color it is bright yellow and it lacks the red root 
and interior of the Key sponge, from which it further differs in its habit of 
flatter growth. It is less harsh than either the Cuban or the Bahama yellow. 

Other localities. —Hippospongia equina elastica is also found in the Mediter- 
ranean, where it is known as the horse sponge and otherwise, from Haiti and other 
places in the Caribbean Sea, and from Australia and New Zealand. Euspongia 
irregularis pertusa is known zoologically from Ceylon, Australia, and the Ellice 
Islands in the Pacific Ocean. 

VELVET SPONGES. 

The velvet sponges found in the straits of Florida, the Caribbean Sea, and 
the Bahamas, with the possible exception of the Jamaica sort, appear to belong 
/to Lendenf eld's Hippospongia equina meandriformis. They are generally cake- 
shaped or spheroidal in form, somewhat broader than high and usually attached 
by a moderately broad base from which the sides swell out. The surface lacks 
the pointed or the edged tufts of the sheepswool sponge and the lamellae are 
thickened at their free edges to form rounded or flattened cushions lying in the 
same plane and imparting a smooth appearance to the sponge. These cushions 
form either meandering ridges or flat brush-shaped tufts, adjacent ridges being 
often united by a felting of fibers producing a flat surface. 

There are usually two, sometimes one, or three, large pseudoscula or 
vents on the upper surface. These are subcircular ragged openings, unlike 
those of any other commercial sponge, divided internally into numerous cir- 
cular openings by irregular torn-looking septa. The color of the skeleton is 
light brown or dull yellow. 

The velvet sponges are very soft to the touch and well deserve their name, 
but they are rather less compressible than the sheepswool and absorb water 
less quickly. They are also less durable and on account of the large holes or 
vents in the upper surface tear more readily. They are next in value to the 
sheepswool, though not differing much from the yellow in price. Following 
are the commercial kinds or grades: 

Florida velvet (pi. xlv) . — Found only on the reefs between Key West and 
Cape Florida, where comparatively few are taken. They are generally rather 
harsh and more or less torn and irregular. 



416 ' BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

Bahama velvet (pi. xlvi). — These bring the highest price, and the best, 
from near Abaco, are excellent sponges, very soft, of good shape, and moder- 
ately strong. 

Cuba velvet (pi. xlvii). — These somewhat resemble the Florida sponges 
and are about equal to them in quality, though softer and frequently with 
the pads less compact and more tufted or "frizzly." 

s Honduras velvet. — The velvet sponges are the best that have been pro- 
duced, so far, in British Honduras. They resemble the Cuban sponges more 
closely than those from other localities and appear to be about equal to them 
in quality. The rollers are hard but attached specimens are usually soft, 
though not so strong as Bahama specimens. 

Jamaica velvet. — This differs much from the other velvet sponges. Its 
surface is more villous, the lamellae less swollen on their free edges, and the 
shape tends to uprightness rather than rotundity, the older specimens espe- 
cially being decidedly columnar. The most marked difference, however, is 
in the character of the vents, which instead of lying in subcircular geptate 
depressions are grouped in single or double rows on the summits of branching 
crests which cross the tops of the sponges. The crests are formed of laciniated 
tufts somewhat like those which surround the vents or "eyes" of sheepswool 
sponges, and the individual openings are incompletely separated by ragged 
partitions as in the other velvet sponges. This arrangement results in a gash 
or tear more or less completely across the top of the skeleton. These sponges 
are harsher and otherwise inferior to the other velvet sponges. 

Other localities. — This species is also known zoologically from Fernando 
de Noronha and Mauritius. A few inferior velvet sponges are taken on the 
Mexican coast but are usually included with the equally inferior sheepswool 
from that country. The few sponges taken about the island of Gonaves, off 
the west coast of Haiti, are principally of this species. 

GRASS SPONGES. 

Grass sponges are known commercially from Florida, the Bahamas, Cuba, 
Mexico, and British Honduras. They exhibit great diversity of shape and 
texture, but are all inferior in quality, lacking in durability, usually harsh to 
the touch, or, if soft, exceedingly tender. Most of them appear to belong to 
hendenield'slHippospongia equina cerebrijormis, but it is by no means clear 
that they are all of this variety or that they can be assigned to Hyatt's several 
varieties of his Spongia equina. None of the descriptions is sufficiently clear 
and complete to enable one to assign satisfactorily any large proportion of a 
considerable series. Following are the commercial varieties: 

Anclote grass (pi. xlviii) . — These are the best of the grass sponges, but their 
shape is such that they are generally used as cuts. They are almost always 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 417 

shaped like waste-paper baskets, inverted truncated cones deeply hollowed 
on their upper faces. The attached base is one-third to one-half narrower 
than the upper rim, the sides are almost straight or slightly convex, and the 
interior is hollowed out almost to the base in the larger specimens. The sides 
are sometimes nearly smooth, but are generally furnished with interrupted 
vertical ridges tufted at their upper ends, and are perforated by numerous 
orifices about ^ inch in diameter. There are no oscula on the outer surface, 
although there are often irregular openings penetrating to the interior or even 
to the central cavity. The walls are thin at the rim of the vase and thicken 
toward the base. The oscula or vents are numerous and cover the whole 
interior of the sponge, excepting the vicinity of the rim. They are about 
yi to % inch in diameter and in the skeletons of older specimens are frequently 
converted into demicylindrical radiating furrows by the breaking down of 
the walls toward the cavity of the vase. 

The skeletons are of a dirty brown color, harsh to the touch and highly 
elastic and resilient. These sponges are used by manufacturers of explosives, 
by masons, and for cleaning purposes about machine shops. They are espe- 
cially useful where there is much oil, as greasy matter is more readily washed 
out of them than from any other sponge. For this reason, and on account 
of their harsh, stiff surface, they are useful for domestic purposes in washing 
pots and pans. They are found distributed over the entire Bay grounds. 

Key grass (pi. xux, l, and Li). — These sponges are much more diverse 
in appearance than the corresponding grade from Anclote, are softer, more 
compressible, and much less durable. A typical form arises from a short 
narrow base or peduncle, spreading into a more or less hemispherical massive 
sponge with a flat or slightly concave top. The whole exterior is nearly covered 
by thin-walled oscular tubes about % to 1 inch in length, the openings having 
a diameter of about -^ inch. These tubes are directed variously, sometimes 
opening almost vertically downward, are sometimes deficient on one side, as 
in Lendenf eld's Hippospongia canaliculata cylindrica, and are not infrequently 
branched or Y-shaped. In some cases they extend more or less completely 
over the top of the sponge, but in the skeleton the latter is usually occupied 
by a great number of closely approximated orifices, about yi inch wide, separated 
by extremely thin walls, this feature being the principal reason for the great 
weakness of the sponge. In life this portion is covered by a membrane per- 
forated by extremely minute pores, and even when the tubes extend over the 
top the space between is covered by a membrane of this character. In older 
specimens the oscular tubes on the outer surface become shorter and less promi- • 
nent, though retaining the general characters just described. 

In other cases the walls of the sponge become much folded and occasionally 
lobular, and the outer surface bears pencils, tufts, and vertical ridges of fiber, 

B. B. F. 1908 — 27 



41 8 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

which obscure the oscula and produce a cavernous interior. The walls in this 
type of sponge tend to become more vertical and the base of attachment broader, 
and as the top is often concave by the decay of the tissues, the sponge is more 
like the Anclote sponges, from which it is distinguished by its more irregular 
surface, its cavernous interior, thicker rim, and greater compressibility and 
tenderness of fiber, as well as by the presence of oscula on the outer surface. In 
other specimens the outer walls are smoother, with fewer and less conspicuous 
oscula, and the tufts of fibers are shorter and more uniform, exhibiting between 
them numerous small orifices. The whole top of these specimens, excepting a 
zone at the rim, is perforated by pores of uniform size, like those described in 
the first variety. 

The Key sponges appear to be Hyatt' s varieties typica, plana, divisa, and 
cgliciformis, although his descriptions can not be recognized with certainty. 
The gradations are multifarious. 

Bahama grass (pi. lii). — These differ strongly in general appearance from 
the Anclote and Key sponges and most of them probably, though by no means 
certainly, belong to Hyatt's variety obscura. They are generally round or 
cake-shaped and regular and are covered with fibrous tufts and pencils some- 
what resembling those of the sheepswool sponge. The oscula are rather numer- 
ous, circular, and confined mainly, though not entirely, to the upper surface; 
but each has its own tube separated from that of its fellows, and there is nothing 
resembling the sieve-like upper surface of the Key sponges. The oscular tubes 
are thin-walled, of nearly uniform length in each individual, and the spaces 
between them are more or less completely filled with an irregular net or loose 
felt of fibers. In older specimens the soft superficial tufts often almost or quite 
disappear and the walls of the tubes break down, producing a rough, ragged 
exterior. The small specimens are light yellow, soft and compressible, the 
larger ones brown, harsh, elastic, stiff, and weaker in texture. Specimens from 
Andros Island, which grow principally on sea feathers, are nearly spherical, the 
oscula are less conspicuous, the surface tufts cushioned or palmate, and the 
texture weak. 

Cuba grass (pi. liii) . — The Cuba grass sponges considered as a whole are 
intermediate between the Key and the Bahama sponges. In a given lot there 
are likely to be specimens resembling the plana type of Key sponges and others 
like the obscura type from the Bahamas with more or less intergradation. In- 
old age the obscura type sometimes becomes cavernous and with a very irregular 
nodular surface. The quality on the whole is inferior to that of the same grade 
from the Bahamas. 

Honduras grass. — The grass sponges from British Honduras appear to 
belong to the obscura type and resemble the coarser and harsher of the Bahaman 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 419 

and Cuban sponges. There are occasional soft specimens, but in general they 
are so hard as to be of little commercial value. 

GLOVE SPONGES. 

This is the Spongia graminea of Hyatt, which Lendenfeld in his synonymy 
includes with certain Australian specimens in his Hippospongia canaliculate, 
var. flabellum, though the description which he furnishes does not apply, except 
perhaps as to the character of the fibers. 

The shape is never "thickly flabellar," but almost invariably stoutly 
columnar, the sides being almost vertical and contracted at the top, which is 
usually fiat. The base is almost as broad as the sponge. The appearance of this 
species is very characteristic, the sides being fluted with irregular vertical par- 
allel ridges between which lie one ,or two rows of round holes from i 1 ^ to rV 
inch in diameter. The ridges are . frequently swollen on their free edges, which 
always bear long, ragged pencils of fibers. When the grooves are deep the 
ridges become plates, which viewed from above have a'radial arrangement. 
They begin a short distance above the base and extend over the top of the 
sponge as far as the large open compound vents, which remotely resemble 
those of the velvet sponge. 

Glove sponges are found on the Key and Bay grounds of Florida (pi. liv) 
and in the Bahamas. Those from the Bay ground are very poor and are rarely 
brought in by the spongers, to whom they are known as "bread sponges, "on 
account of their excessive tenderness. Glove sponges are very soft and elastic, 
but owing to the weakness of their fiber and their open texture they are almost 
worthless for commercial purposes. Hyatt states that "this is one of the grass 
sponges;" hence his name for it, but it is now generally known by the name 
used here. 

The best glove sponges come from Biscayne Bay, where they grow stronger, 
less open, and with lower ridges than in other parts of the Keys. 

REEF SPONGES. 

The few reef sponges taken on the Key grounds in Florida are generally 
included with the yellow sponges and do not reach the market as a distinct sort. 
Those found in the trade come from the Bahamas, the north coast of Cuba, and 
British Honduras, the former two localities producing sponges of essentially the 
same character, while those from Honduras are inferior, more irregular and open, 
and with other indications of shoal water origin. Reef sponges are also taken 
on the west coast of Haiti. 

Most reef sponges appear to belong to Lendenfeld's species Euspongia 
officinalis rotunda, embracing many of Hyatt's numerous varieties of Spongia 



420 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

agaricina and S. officinalis. As might be expected from this statement, they 
are of varied shape, but comparatively uniform in quality and the appearance 
of the surface, which is a fairly even network inclosing numerous small round 
holes averaging about A- inch in diameter, the interlying ridges being covered 
with short, bristle-like bundles of fibers. In the general appearance of the sur- 
face these sponges resemble the finer grades of Mediterranean sponges much 
more closely than do any of the other American sponges, but the pores are 
somewhat larger and the projecting bundles of fibers are stouter and stiffer. In 
some specimens, particularly the helmet-shaped ones, which are apparently 
Hyatt's variety disciformis , the surface is softer than that of the zimocca, but 
not equal to that of the Mediterranean toilet sponge. 

Most of the larger reef sponges from both the Bahamas and Cuba belong to 
Hyatt's Spongia officinalis subsp. tubihfera vars. pertusa and mollis (pi. lv), not 
Lendenfeld's Euspongia irregularis pertusa, and are massive lobular forms with the 
vents at the conical summits of the fistular lobes or the solid masses into which they 
f use . In the furrows between the lobes and the depressions between the summits of 
those which have fused basally, the surface orifices are larger than elsewhere and 
the projecting bristles are much longer. The vents are generally arranged in 
more or less radiating rows extending down the sides of the sponge. Another 
common type is flattened in a vertical plane, with the oscula lying in a sharp 
crest extending longitudinally up the ends and across the top and surrounded by 
soft tufts of fiber longer than on the rest of the surface (pi. lvi). Between these 
two types there are intergradations tending to produce more or less massive 
forms, with the oscula in rows or scattered on rounded eminences. Others 
evidently belonging to Hyatt's 5. agaricina punctata are considerably higher 
than broad, and have the oscula more or less radially arranged, those on the 
sides being slit in the direction of the base. These are often included among 
the "hardheads." The reef sponges are low priced and are used as desk sponges, 
for surgical purposes, for infant toilet sponges, especially when bleached, and 
for various purposes in the arts which require a soft sponge of no great durability. 

HARDHEAD SPONGES. 

The hardhead? (pi. lvii) , most of which come from the Bahamas, British 
Honduras, Haiti, and the north coast of Cuba, are another miscellaneous group, ' 
some of which are indifferently assigned to this or the preceding grade, as they 
are harder or softer to the touch. The hardheads are generally elastic and 
resilient, but somewhat less compressible than the preceding and harsher to 
the touch. They are also on the whole more regular in form. 

A considerable number of them, especially among the Cuba specimens, 
belong to Lendenfeld's Euspongia irregularis pertusa, the larger and softer 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 42 1 

specimens of which are classed as yellow sponges. Most of the others can be 
assigned to one or the other of Hyatt's varieties which Lendenfeld includes 
in his Euspongia officinalis rotunda. Common among these are conical or 
club-shaped forms sometimes bluntly branched (Hyatt's agaricina corlosia var. 
elongata) or rounded specimens attached by a narrow base (Hyatt's officinalis 
tubilifera var. rotunda). In both of these the surface is composed of narrow 
ridges separating small circular apertures and covered with short bristles. The 
larger of these sponges tend to become conical and somewhat flattened in a 
vertical plane, and they are also usually softer and more compressible than the 
smaller individuals. The oscula are large and conspicuous, they usually lie on 
more or less prominent rounded eminences and at the summits of the blunt 
branches, and tend to become slit-shape or elongate, especially on the sides. 
The hardhead sponges are used for applying shoe dressings, as desk sponges 
and for various purposes in the arts not requiring great softness. They are in 
general more durable than reef sponges. 

WIRE SPONGES. 

The wire sponge (pi. lviii and lix) , sometimes called " bastard sheepswool," 
somewhat resembles the wool sponge in superficial appearance, though it more 
closely simulates the honeycomb sponge of the Mediterranean. In shape it is 
regular, rather broader than high, and attached by a broad base. The sides are 
perforated by numerous circular or polygonal orifices, separated by thin-edged 
partitions which, while sometimes ending in bristly tufts, are never prolonged 
into the long, soft, expanded processes characteristic of the sheepswool sponge, 
the surface of the wire sponge therefore lying in a more uniform plane. The 
oscula or " eyes " are confined to the upper surface, are smaller and more numerous 
than in the sheepsv/ool sponge, and are rarely or never situated on the summits 
of cones rising above the general surface. 

The wire sponge differs from the honeycomb sponge in its more open surface 
and general texture, its more bristly appearance, its much thicker fibers, and 
coarser, more open felt. If the fibers are examined under a lens they will be 
found heavily charged with sand granules, which impart to the sponge its charac- 
teristically harsh feel. 

Until very recently wire sponges were rarely brought to market on account 
of their numerous bad qualities — their harshness, their lack of strength and 
absorptiveness, and the readiness with which they drain after being wet. Within 
the last year, however, a considerable demand has arisen, and they now yield 
the spongers a price per bunch about on a par with that of yellow sponges. 
They are all exported, and there is good reason to believe that they are bleached 
and sold as Mediterranean honeycomb. They come almost entirely from the 
west coast of Florida. 



422 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

TURKEY CUP SPONGES. 

These sponges (pi. lx and lxi, fig. i) , known also as fine Levant or fine Syrian, 
are the Euspongia officinalis mollissima of Schulze. They are sometimes massive, 
when they are known to the trade as "Turkey solids," but are frequently more 
or less cup-shaped, though perfect cups are comparatively rare, and as they are 
regarded as especially desirable bring high prices. The oscula are comparatively 
large and numerous and are grouped closely together on the upper surface of the 
solids or in the concavity of the cups, the skeletal partitions which separate 
them being often very thin. The outer surfaces are perforated by numerous 
round or polygonal pores, the narrow partitions between which are beset with 
long, slender, and very soft, fibrous pencils. The foreign bodies in the fibers are 
small in quantity, the main fibers themselves are comparatively few, and the 
microscopic network has rather large irregular and elongate meshes, this combi- 
nation of characters making it the finest and softest sponge and one of the most 
elastic on the market. 

The "Turkey cup" and "Turkey solid" are confined mainly to the eastern 
Mediterranean, though a closely related form comes from Zarzis, on the Tunisian 
coast. The very finest are obtained on the Syrian coast, but excellent qualities 
are found at Crete, Cyprus, and Mandruka in Egypt. It is stated that many of 
the best now come from caves and crevices, where they attain a finer and denser 
growth than elsewhere. This kind of sponge, like the Turkey toilet sponges, 
never attains a size comparable with that reached by most other commercial 
sponges, but the high price it brings compensates for its smallness. It is stated 
that a few of the very best sell for about $50 per pound. They are used mainly 
for the more exquisite purposes of the toilet. 

TURKEY TOILET SPONGES. 

These sponges (pi. lxi, fig. 2, and lxii) are mainly included in the zoological 
variety Euspongia officinalis adriatica of Schulze, though apparently some inferior 
specimens of the Turkey cup sponge are also embraced in this commercial species. 
Toilet sponges are flatter and more encrusting in their habit than are the cup 
sponges, and are generally broadly attached, though sometimes the base is 
constricted. The oscula are confined to the upper surface, being usually dis- 
tributed over all parts excepting toward the edge, but in what appear to be 
compound individuals they are often arranged in groups. Each oscule is gen- 
erally surrounded by a rampart of bristles. The surfaces other than those 
bearing the oscula are perforated by numerous fine pores. The ridges forming 
the network between these pores are rather sharp edged as compared with the 
cup sponges, while the fibrous processes which they bear are shorter, stouter, 
harsher, and more bristle-like. The sponge as a whole is less compressible than 
the cup sponges and not so soft and fine. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 423 

Toilet sponges are rather generally distributed in the Mediterranean from 
the Adriatic and the coast of Tunis eastward. They are used for toilet pur- 
poses, in surgery, and for leather dressing, pottery making, and various other 
purposes of the arts. 

A somewhat similar sponge is found in great abundance at Sitanki, Philip- 
pine Islands. (PI. exiii.) Its general texture closely resembles the toilet sponge, 
but its upper surface bears longer tufts of fibers and numerous uniformly dis- 
tributed oscula or pores about one-eighth inch in diameter, characters which 
cause it to resemble in that respect some of the grass sponges from the Florida 
Keys. It is very soft, but much weaker than the toilet sponge and about as 
strong as Key grass. 

ZIMOCCA SPONGES. 

These sponges (Euspongia zimocca) are massive, more or less, conical, 
broader than high, sometimes flat on top, sometimes concave, occasionally cup- 
shaped, and usually attached by a rather small base. (PI. lxiv.) The oscula 
are scattered over the upper surface, occasionally arranged in irregular radial 
rows, and are frequently, though by no means always, surrounded by ramparts 
of bristly fibers. The whole outer surface consists of a reticulation of narrow 
ridges, inclosing numerous small pores and bearing short fibrous villosities 
which generally become longer and softer toward the upper surface. • The sur- 
face texture of the skeleton resembles that of some of the Cuban and Nassau 
hardhead sponges, but the orifices are smaller, the intervening ridges are nar- 
rower, and the skeleton softer and more durable. 

The zimocca sponge is found commercially in the Adriatic, the Dardanelles, 
on the west coast of Asia Minor, the coasts of Egypt, Tripoli, and Tunis, the islands 
of the Grecian Archipelago, Crete, Cyprus, Corsica, and Lampedusa. The 
zimocca sponges are the harshest of the Mediterranean grades, but in common 
with other kinds they become softer when bleached, though they are less dura- 
ble. Both bleached and unbleached they are darker in color. They are used 
for toilet purposes, and by potters, leather dressers, and other artisans. They 
are generally too harsh for surgical purposes. 

Seale describes a sponge which on the advice of a New York dealer he calls 
a " Philippine zimocca." The specimen shown to me was of excellent quality 
and commercially valuable, but was certainly not a zimocca sponge. 

HONEYCOMB, BATH, OR HORSE SPONGES. 

These are the Hippos pongia equina elastica of Lendenfeld and are classed by 
zoologists with the yellow sponge of the Florida Keys, from which it differs 

<* 1 have recently seen one of these, in a good state of preservation, which has been in daily use 
for bath purposes for two years. 



424 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

in shape, texture, strength, and softness. (PI. lxv.) It is a massive, cake- 
shaped sponge, attached by a broad base, always broader than high and never 
"pineapple-shaped" as its American relative frequently is. The surface is 
fairly uniform, with the lamellae superficially expanded and often forming nar- 
row reticular bridges across subsurface cavities. The surface is covered with 
small rather blunt tufts or pencils of fiber, particularly around the edges of 
the numerous polygonal, circular, or meandering openings. The oscula are scat- 
tered over the upper part of the sponge, usually opening on the general surface, 
but occasionally surrounded by a rampart of fibers which produce a very short 
oscular tube. The general superficial aspect of this sponge is intermediate 
between the sheepswool and the velvet, being much less shaggy than the former 
and rougher and less meandriform than the latter. In surface appearance it 
somewhat resembles the Florida wire sponge. Certain sheepswool sponges which 
the author has artificially grown from cuttings in the Florida Keys reproduce 
quite accurately the surface texture of the honeycomb sponge. 

The honeycomb sponge is quite generally distributed throughout the Med- 
iterranean, being found from the Gulf of Lyons along the north, east, and south 
shores as far as the Algerian coast. It is known commercially from the vicin- 
ity of Marseilles, Corsica, the Adriatic, the Archipelago, the coasts of Asia 
Minor, Egypt, Tripoli and Tunis, Crete, Cyprus, Lampedusa, the Dardanelles 
and the Red Sea. The best are the Mandruka sponges, which are compact, 
soft, and fine, but those from Tunis, Crete and Asia Minor are little inferior and 
many of them enter the markets as Mandrukas. The Tripolitan honeycomb 
sponges are rough, coarse, and loose in texture, and those from the Archipelago 
are but little better. 

As has been before stated, one of the yellow sponges of American waters 
is considered zoologically identical with the honeycomb, and the variety is also 
known from Australia and New Zealand, those I have seen from the former 
locality being harsh, open, coarse, and decidedly inferior to any known com- 
mercially. 

As compared with American sponges, the Mandruka is softer than any 
except the Matecumbe sheepswool, but it is less durable than the Rock 
Island sheepswool, less resilient, and more quickly loses its elasticity in use. It 
is a popular bath sponge, for which its size and shape makes it excellent, buf 
is being displaced in the American markets by the more generally superior 
sheepswool. These sponges are also used in the arts, by jewelers and silver- 
smiths, leather manufacturers, and as desk sponges for bank tellers, etc. 

ELEPHANT-EAR SPONGES. 

These are the Euspongia officinalis lamella of Schulze and are either cup- 
shaped or cap-shaped with rather thin walls of uniform thickness or a more or 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 425 

less rolled ear-shaped or fan-shaped plate from X to 1 inch thick. (PI. exvi.) The 
oscula are confined to the inside of the cupped forms or the concave faces of the 
lamellate specimens, and are arranged in groups of 4 to 6, surrounded by tufts of 
fibers longer than on the rest of the skeleton. These groups are generally in 
radial and concentric rows and the whole of the oscular surface of the skeleton 
often has more or less the appearance of being radially grooved, owing to the 
linear arrangement of the rows of fibrous tufts which cover it. The outer or 
convex surface of the sponge is more uniformly covered with soft fibrous tufts, 
though these tend to radial arrangement near the rim, and there are sometimes 
radial ridges or thickenings of irregular length extending from the base toward 
the margin. This sponge is very fine, soft, and durable, being equal in those 
respects to the Turkey toilet sponge. It is used for fine toilet purposes, for which 
its shape makes it desirable; for surgical purposes, and in the medical application 
of electricity, by potters, fine leather workers, jewelers, cane makers, hatters, and 
other artisans requiring a smooth, fine, soft, and durable sponge. 

It is found commercially on the coasts of Provence and Dalmatia, in the 
Greek archipelago, on the coasts of Egypt, Tunis, and Algeria, and about the 
Balearic and Lampedosa islands, and the variety is known zoologically from the 
north coast of Australia. 

A similar but much denser and harsher sponge is found near Jolo, Philippine 
Islands. In the few specimens that I have seen the fibers are heavily laden 
with sand grains, which makes them useless commercially, but it is possible that 
better grades may be found. 

IV. THE FLORIDA SPONGE FISHERY. 

The Florida Keys first received permanent settlement about the time that 
the present State was erected into a Territory upon its cession to the United States 
in 1 821. Key West, the first and for many years the sole center of the sponge 
industry, was settled in 1822, and it is probable that the early inhabitants soon 
learned, from the specimens thrown up on the beaches of the keys, of the presence 
of several species of useful sponges in the surrounding waters. It is known 
that long before these became an article of commerce they were in limited domestic 
use among the inhabitants, but it was apparently not until 1849 that they were 
given a commercial value. In that year a cargo of sponges was sent to New 
York on a venture, probably as the result of knowledge of the recently discovered 
commercial value of the sponges in the Bahamas, which islands furnished the 
majority of the early settlers of Key West and have since maintained with it 
close social relations. Before this time the entire sponge supply of the United 
States was derived from the Mediterranean, though of later years a few sponges 
may have come from the Bahamas, which had begun to export seven or eight years 



426 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

before, but that the supply from the latter source must at most have been small is 
shown by the fact that its total exports to all countries in the year mentioned were 
valued at but some $10,000. In any event, sponges other than those from the 
Mediterranean were but little known and the venturesome cargo from Key West 
narrowly escaped being thrown away as worthless. Its ultimate sale, however, 
established a market for this newly discovered product of the keys, and several 
merchants at Key West began to buy the better grades and to take them in trade. 
It is said that at first the price was but 10 cents per pound, presumably for 
sheepswool sponges, but as the quality of the domestic product became better 
known the price improved, there began to be a systematic investment of capital 
to take the place of the desultory fishery previously carried on, and a class of men 
developed whose principal or sole business and means of livelihood was gather- 
ing sponges. 

THE SPONGING GROUNDS. 

The sponging grounds as at present developed are broadly divided into two 
widely separated areas, the ' 'Bay Grounds," lying in the open waters of the Gulf 
of Mexico, from about Johns Pass to St. Marks, and the "Key Grounds," 
stretching along and among the reefs and keys from Cape Florida to Boca 
Grande Key. 

That there is sponge-bearing bottom between the New Ground off Cape 
Sable and the mouth of Tampa Bay admits of little doubt, but notwithstanding 
that the Key West fleet has traversed that region year after year in going to and 
from the Bay grounds, practically no sponges have been taken there, owing 
mainly to the depth and almost constant turbidity of the water. A few spongers 
have reported seeing sponges, but never in considerable quantities. 

The grounds as exploited and worked by the hookers up to the time of the 
introduction of diving apparatus, in April, 1905, covered an area of 4,350 square 
miles, of which the Bay grounds contained about 3,400 and the Key grounds 
about 950 square miles. It must not be considered, however, that all of- this 
area is productive, for on the contrary the actual sponge-producing bottom in 
any given field is far less than the barren areas with which it is mingled. 

Sponges grow neither on sand nor mud, nor primarily on grassy areas, but 
must have some firm clean body to which to attach when the small free-swimming 
larva is read}'' to settle down and assume its final fixed condition and form. 
Among the Keys the bottom in the main consists of sand and more or less cal- 
careous mud or marl, either naked or less frequently supporting a grassy growth, 
while on the Bay grounds it is generally sandy offshore with more or less grass in 
the shallow waters close to land. In the channels and other places among the keys 
where the currents run with sufficient velocity to scour the bottom or the waves 
prevent the excessive deposit of silt, the coral rock is exposed and furnishes 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 427 

attachment for sponges and other sessile marine organisms. In the same way 
on the Bay grounds the bottom is denuded by currents in the channels, as at the 
north end of Hog Island, and on the Buoy grounds above Anclote Key, while 
offshore there are rugged outcroppings of rock rising above the surrounding sand. 
It is upon these " spots of ba r," as the spongers call them, insignificant in area as 
compared with the adjoining stretches of sand and mud, that the sponges occur 
in greatest abundance, attached to the rocky floor of the sea. 

Occasionally they grow on sea feathers, which in turn are anchored to the 
bottom, or on mangroves, and considerable numbers are often found in the grass 
or in saucer-shaped sandy depressions surrounded by grass. Their occurrence 
in the latter places apparently contradicts the statement that they do not grow 
on grass or sand, but the contradiction is apparent rather than real, as they have 
been in all cases originally attached, but either in the operation of sponging or 
by wave action have been torn loose, and rolling freely over the bottom at the 
mercy of the waves have finally been entrapped in the tangle of vegetable growth. 
Such sponges are generally almost spherical, have no "root," and the surface is 
uniformly smooth from friction on the bottom and harsh from the excessive 
inclusion of sand grains. They are known to the spongers as ".rollers" or 
" rollingjohnnies " and are often found in groups in sandy depressions in grassy 
bottom called "turtle sets" from the erroneous supposition that they are made 
by turtles. 

BAY GROUNDS. 

The Bay grounds, which formerly held a secondary place commercially, now 
yield practically the entire production of Florida sponges, the Key grounds 
furnishing hardly 9 per cent of the sheepswool sponges and less than 1 3 per cent 
of all kinds. The Bay grounds begin at or near Johns Pass, a few miles north of 
Tampa Bay, and extend without material interruption as far as St. Marks, a 
distance of 160 miles. As known at the time of the introduction of the diving 
machine, this ground extended from a depth of 10 or 15 feet to from 7 to 12 
fathoms 20 to 40 miles from shore, but although sponges had been seen in the 
greater depths, no sponging had been done in more than 8 fathoms owing to the 
limitations imposed by the methods employed. Grass and a few sheepswool 
sponges were taken in less than 10 feet of water, especially in the early days of the 
fishery, but the bulk of the product was from between 20 and 35 to 40 feet, 
though in 1902, owing to unusually favorable conditions, a heavy catch of fine 
sponges was made in water as deep as 45 or 48 feet. Several persons had 
reported seeing sponges in 20 fathoms, and it is stated that on at least one 
occasion a sponge was brought up from 1 7 fathoms on a fish line. 

In 1905 the area of the known sponge beds in the Bay grounds was about 
3,400 square miles. Since then the operations of the divers, who in a few cases 



428 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

have gone as deep as 1 10 feet, have slightly extended this area, and as that method 
of sponging becomes older and the shoaler waters more exhausted it can hardly 
be doubted that other productive grounds will be found in the greater depths. 
Should the Bay grounds be found to extend generally to a depth of 15 fathoms, 
about 3,700 square miles would be added to the area of sponge bottom, while if 
they prove productive to a depth of 20 fathoms there would be added to the area 
developed by the hookers no less than 5,900 square miles, making a total of 
about 9,300 square miles of sponge-producing bottom between Johns Pass and 
St. Marks inside of the 20-fathom curve. 

It must of course be understood, as before intimated, that this area is not 
all productive. In general, the sponges are confined to the "barry bottom," 
which rises in patches like rocky islets above the sands that cover the general 
floor of the Gulf (pi. xxvui). These bars are always more or less scattered, here 
isolated, there occurring in groups or series of ridges, and in the operations of 
sponging much time is consumed in looking for them. In the deeper waters 
they are found with the lead and in the shoaler waters by searching the bottom 
with the water glass or water telescope. 

The bars, especially in the shoaler water, are sometimes moderately level 
expanses, but are generally rough and rugged, with fissures, clefts, crevices, 
miniature precipices and overhanging ledges, in all parts of which the sponges 
grow like lichens clinging to the rocks, sometimes exposed to view from above, 
often hidden in semidark recesses on the sides of upright walls or beneath pro- 
jecting ledges. They are mingled with noncommercial sponges of many species, 
with gorgonians (sea feathers, etc.) , polyzoa (sea moss) , and corals, and sur- 
rounded by a wealth of life — fishes, mollusca, crabs, shrimps and other Crustacea 
of bizarre shapes and brilliant hues, starfish and sea-urchins of varied form, sea 
cucumbers and worms, some permanently attached to the rocks and others free 
to wander, yet finding on the bars rich feeding grounds, oases in the vast desert 
of sand lying round about. 

Compared with the total area of the sponge grounds the extent of these bars 
is small, nobody can say how small relatively, but it is from them and practically 
from them alone, that the supply of sponges must be drawn. Their distribution 
is irregular in different sections of the grounds and in different depths ; sometimes 
there are great areas of white sandy bottom quite devoid of rocks and again the 
bars are comparatively closely approximated over a wide range. 

The Bay grounds are broadly subdivided by the spongers into the Rock 
Island, Pepperfish, New, St. Martins Reef, Anclote, and Highland regions, each 
in itself of uncertain boundaries and more or less subdivided into indefinite sub- 
localities. The names used by the spongers are very contradictory, and the 
location of a fleet working in a given area may be described in five or six different 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 429 

ways by hardly more than that number of masters. The reasons for this are 
twofold. In the first place the local distinctions between the grounds are purely 
artificial, as the sponge-bearing belt is practically continuous, bearing in mind 
the irregular distribution of the bars themselves, and in the second place the 
spongers when out of sight of land do not know exactly where they are, few if 
any being navigators. They usually refer their location to their last point of 
departure and it may thus happen that of two vessels working side by side one 
will declare itself off Rock Island and the other off Pepperfish Keys, the two 
locations being over 40 miles apart, the first vessel having sailed south and the 
other west from the last landfall. 

Though the grounds as at present known to the spongers are indeterminate 
as to their boundaries, there were originally apparently natural distinctions 
between some of them. The shoal- water areas were first discovered and worked 
and there it was found that the sponge-bearing bottom was interrupted by large 
areas of smooth barren sand and grass. One of these, lying off Piney Point, 
separates the inshore parts of the Rock Island and Pepperfish grounds, and 
another and larger one, extending for 30 miles opposite Cedar Keys and the mouth 
of the Suwanee River, lies between the Pepperfish and St. Martins Reef beds. 
Each of these extends to a distance of 20 to 25 miles from shore and to a depth 
of 5 to 8 fathoms. Later discoveries developed bars outside of these "lakes" 
as they are called, so that in the deeper water the grounds are now continuous. 

The most prolific beds extend from off Cedar Keys to the waters southwest 
of Anclote, including New, St. Martins Reef, and Anclote grounds. About 1895 
the sponges on the Rock Island, Pepperfish, and New grounds were killed off 
by "poison water," which extended from the vicinity of St. Marks to the beds 
off the Suwanee River. Recuperation of the beds first began to make itself 
evident about 1901. 

Rock Island region. — The region so designated takes its name from a small 
island about 22 miles to the eastward of St. Marks light. It extends from 
about Ocklockonee shoal to the smooth sandy bottom off Piney Point, which 
separates it in its shoaler parts from the Pepperfish Key beds. As developed 
by the hookers, it had an area of about 800 square miles, about 50 miles of 
which, forming a strip a few miles offshore, yields grass sponges in consider- 
able numbers. Inside of the 5 -fathom line the Rock Island beds produce 
sheepswool sponges in great abundance, though most of them are compara- 
tively small. When first discovered, the sponges were larger; but owing to 
the intense fishery in the shoal waters they now have no opportunity to grow, 
if, indeed, their size has not become permanently impaired by the persistent 
and constant selection out of the larger ones, as appears to be the case at 
Sugar Loaf Key also. 



430 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

The sheepswool sponges of this region are of fine quality, close and tough 
of fiber, rather flat or cake shaped, and somewhat darker in color than the 
Key sponges. They bring a higher price than any American sponges, though 
probably not superior to those from other sections of the Bay grounds, the 
product of all of which goes under the general designation of "Rock Island." 

Pepper fish Key region. — These beds lie opposite Pepperfish Keys and 
extend from the sandy bottom off Piney Point and Grass Island to the similar, 
though larger, area off the Suwanee and Cedar Keys. In the deeper water 
they join the Rock Island beds on the one hand and the New ground beds on 
the other. They lie in a depth of from 6 to 7 feet to 10 or 11 fathoms, begin- 
ning about 3 or 5 miles from shore, and extend a distance of about 25 to 35 
miles. Their total area in 1905 was about 550 square miles, of which about 
75 square miles, lying in a depth of from 8 to 18 feet, was mainly productive 
of grass sponges. 

New Ground region. — The New ground is so called because it was discov- 
ered at a later period than those on each side, Pepperfish and St. Martins Reef, 
between which it formed a connecting link in the deeper water outside of the 
sandy area, which separates them shoreward. Its extent northwest and south- 
east is about 30 miles, lying in sinuous outline in a depth of between 5 and 10 
fathoms at the stage of development of 1905. Its width varies, but averages 
a little over 10 miles, and its area as exploited by the hookers is about 350 
square miles. This is a prolific ground and, in the opinion of the hookers, 
marks the northern limit at which the sponges are at present most abundant. 

Withlacoochee Bight and St. Martins Reef. — This includes the sponge beds 
between the mouth of the Waccasassa River and Sea Horse Reef on the north 
and St. Martins Reef on the south, covering an area of about 1,100 square miles. 
As developed by the hookers, the beds ranged from a depth of about 7 or 8 feet 
to 9 or 10 fathoms; but the divers have since found the productive bottom to 
extend in some places to 15 or 18 fathoms. 

Withlacoochee Bight is prolific in sheepswool sponges, but owing, perhaps, 
to the discharge of the numerous small streams along shore the water is' gen- 
erally too cloudy for the hookers to work to advantage. In the shoaler water, 
from 1 to 3 fathoms deep, extending along the inner edge of these grounds for 
almost their entire length, there is an area on which grass sponges predominate, 
and some years ago many fine large ones were taken there ; but it is stated that 
the growth now consists almost wholly of small specimens. In the deeper 
water sheepswool and yellow sponges predominate, with a considerable num- 
ber of large grass sponges. This region and the grounds to the southward are 
those now principally resorted to by the divers. 

Anclote region. — The Anclote region, practically continuous with the pre- 
ceding and the following, extends from St. Martins Reef to about Big Pass, 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 43 1 

and as known in 1905 covered an area of about 290 square miles. At that 
time the depth in which the sponges were found extended from about 4 or 5 
fathoms to about 8 to 10 fathoms; but the divers have since then taken large 
quantities in from 10 to 15 fathoms, and a few boats are said to have worked 
as deep as 18 fathoms. There are a few small patches of bar in waters as shoal 
as 2 or 3 fathoms on the Buoy grounds, in the channel south of Anclote Key 
and near the north end of Hog Island. The Buoy grounds are noted for their 
rapid recuperation. The deeper waters produce a fine grade of sheepswool 
sponges, and both yellow and grass are also found in considerable quantities. 
Highlands region. — This, the southern limit of the Bay grounds, stretches 
from Big Pass to Johns Pass, the known distribution of sponges in 1905 cover- 
ing an area of about 300 square miles. Owing to the absence of streams dis- 
charging fresh water, the sponges extend much closer to shore than in the 
regions to the northward, but they range offshore to about the same depths 
as in the Anclote region, though, owing to the steeper slope of the bottom, the 
hookers never worked so far from shore. 

KEY GROUNDS. 

The Key grounds, though for many years the only source of supply of 
Florida sponges, are now comparatively exhausted and of reduced value. 
During the past few years they have produced about 30,000 pounds of sheeps- 
wool sponges per annum, while in 1900, an exceptionally good year for these 
grounds, the catch was 58,294 pounds. The production of all kinds averaged 
79,487 pounds in the years 1906, 1907, and 1908, while in 1899 an< A 1900 the 
average was 139,458 pounds. 

Between the keys and the mainland the grounds extend from Boca Grande 
Key and Cape Sable as far as the Cowpens, off Long Island, and from the 
lower end of Cards Sound to Cape Florida. In Hawk Channel there are 
patches of sponge-bearing bottom along the line of reefs forming its outer 
margin, and at intervals close to the keys which define it on the landward 
side, from near Key West as far as Hillsboro Inlet; but, though at one time 
fished throughout the entire distance, it is only between Knights Key Channel 
and Soldier Key that these patches now attract the attention of spongers. 

The interruption in the distribution of sponges inside the line of keys 
from Long Island to Cards Sound, mentioned above, is due to the low salinity 
of the water. For nearly 30 miles Key Largo imposes an unbroken barrier 
against the interchange of waters between the inside bay and Hawk Channel, 
with the result that the drainage of the Everglades is impounded and the 
salinity reduced below the degree which inhibits sponge growth. On two 
occasions I have run a line of salinity observations through this barren area 



432 BULLETIN OP THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

and found the density gradually falling from about i .0205 on the sponge grounds 
at either end to about 1.0135 approximately midway between. All other con- 
ditions for the maintenance of sponge life appear to be present, and certain 
species, like the loggerhead, more tolerant of fresh water, are found in abundance. 
In the construction of the new line of railroad to Key West many of the 
passes between the keys west of Key Largo have been completely or partially 
closed and it is not improbable that the salinity of the water will be so lowered 
as to affect adversely the sponge grounds near the Matecumbes. 

The Key grounds produce sponges in greater variety than the Bay grounds. 
Not only are there more noncommercial species but there are more useful kinds, 
and of each of these there are a number of local varieties readily recognized 
by the spongers and dealers. All have, however, one well-marked character- 
istic that in general serves to distinguish them from corresponding species 
taken "up the bay," namely, a reddish or rusty appearance of the interior 
fibers, called "red root" on account of its being more readily seen on that 
portion of the sponge torn away from its attachment to the bottom. This 
color is not generally exhibited by the strictly peripheral fibers, but is readily 
observable in the oscula and at the bottoms of the channels or grooves which 
traverse the surface, and upon cutting the sponge it is found to permeate the 
whole interior. It is due to an oxide of iron and is popularly supposed among 
those engaged in the business to be caused in some manner by the coral rocks 
to which the key sponges are commonly attached. That it is due to the con- 
stituency of the water among the keys there can be no doubt, but that it is 
not absorbed directly from the rocks is shown by its presence in sponges growing 
above the bottom attached to sea feathers (gorgonians) or artificially grown 
from cuttings attached to suspended wires. Red-rooted sponges are almost 
invariably more tender, weaker in fiber, and less durable than those of gener- 
ally similar texture not so colored, but whether the coloring material causes 
the weakness or whether the conditions producing the two are merely coinci- 
dent can not be stated. The color is quite different from the paler yellow 
seen in some of the Bay sponges. 

The "barry bottom" of the Key grounds is generally fairly level as to 
surface, though on the reefs and in places on the Key shore of the Hawk Channel 
there are bowlders and heads of coral rock, often rising from a depth of 2 or 3 
fathoms almost or quite to the surface. The commercial species found on the 
Key grounds are sheepswool, yellow, velvet or boat, grass, and glove. The 
velvet or boat sponge is obtained principally from the reefs and owing to the 
difficulty of working in that exposed region is to be had in but comparatively 
small quantities. The other species are generally distributed. 

The Key grounds are subdivided into innumerable more or less poorly 
defined areas, each of which has received from the spongers one or more local 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 433 

names, sometimes fanciful, but frequently having some topographic, personal, 
or historic origin. It is impossible to describe within reasonable limits all of 
these various sublocalities, but a few of the more important will be mentioned. 

The New grounds extend from Cape Sable and Middle Cape southwest to 
beyond Contents Keys and westerly from a depth of 1 1 feet to a depth of about 
5 fathoms. The bottom consists of a series of more or less extensive bars 
separated by white sand, and the sponges produced are of excellent quality, 
generally pineapple-shaped and colored less brightly red than is usual in the 
keys. All classes of sponges are found, but the water is rarely clear and the 
grounds are therefore but occasionally productive. Southeast of this are 
"spots of bar" stretching to the so-called lakes along the line of keys as far as 
Lower Matecumbe. 

West of Key West there is an area lying between Boca Grande, Man, Woman, 
and Mullet keys and the slope of Lavinia Bank, where most of the sponges are 
rollers. There are also beds along the sides of Northwest Channel, one of the 
entrances to Key West Harbor. 

Between Key West and Bahia Honda. — In this region sponging has been 
carried on for many years in Wall Key Lake, Johnson Key Lake, Sugar Loaf 
Sounds, and in all of the long narrow channels leading between the keys. In 
the lakes and sounds schools of fish and in the channels the strong currents 
keep the water muddy a large part of the time. Sheepswool, yellow, grass, 
and glove sponges are found, but the quality of the first two is inferior. 

Money Key and Pigeon Key lakes. — These areas are practically continuous 
and lie between Bahia Honda and Knights Key Channel, extending north and 
northwest to Teakettle and East Bahia Honda keys. The water has a maxi- 
mum depth of about 9 or 10 feet in the former and n or 12 feet in the latter. 
Wool, yellow, grass, and glove sponges are found, the former being superior in 
quality to those found to the westward. 

Knights Key Channel, Rachel Key Lake, Grassy Key Lake, and Channel 
Key Lake. — These form a practically continuous sponging ground between 
Knights Key and the sand banks and shoals running northwest from Long 
Key, and in the palmy days of the key fishery were much resorted to by the 
Key West fleet. During recent years, in common with the rest of the key 
grounds, this area was nearly exhausted and comparatively deserted by spongers, 
but in the spring of 1908 and the following winter excellent sheepswool sponges 
of good shape, size, and quality were being taken in the vicinity of Bamboo 
Key. They were described by dealers as being of the highest quality of Key 
sponges and unusually free from the objectionable red color before mentioned, 
and the spongers stated that there was an abundant young growth on the 
grounds. This appears to be an evidence of the natural recuperation of the 

B. B. F. 1908—28. 



*. 



434 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

sponge beds when, either by legal prohibition or from commercial considerations, 
they are wholly or partially abandoned for a few years. On most parts of this 
area the barry bottom is scattered and the water, which has a maximum depth 
of about 10 feet, is frequently too muddy for work. 

Jewfish Bush lakes. — These, known respectively as the upper and lower 
lakes, stretch from Jewfish Bush and Lower Matecumbe Key northwest to 
Schooner Bank, and produce limited quantities of excellent Key sheepswool. 
The bars are scattered and of comparatively small extent, and, particularly in 
the upper lake, the sponge growth is mingled with sea feathers and many kinds 
of noncommercial sponges. The water varies in depth between 6 and 10 feet, 
the deeper water being toward the northwest. 

In the summer of 1908 the sponge beds in this region and to the eastward 
were destroyed by "poison water." It is probable that this was fresh water 
from the Everglades, impounded by the railroad embankments of the " Key 
West Extension." The closure or partial closure of the several channels 
between the keys must result in the westward extension of the same density 
conditions which formerly prevented the growth of sponges inside of Key 
Largo, to which reference has been made before. 

Lignum- Vitce and Cotton Key lakes. — These lie north of the Matecumbes 
and Lignum- Vitae Key, are connected by Ironwood Channel, and almost sur- 
rounded by sand banks. The bottom of the former is almost all hard, and 
bears a scattered growth of sheepswool sponges and considerable quantities of 
other species. In Cotton Key Lake the rocky bottom is scattered and the 
growth consists mainly of grass sponges. In Lignum- Vitae Lake the depth is 
generally between 6 and 8 feet, while in Cotton Key Lake it averages about a 
foot less. The sheepswool and yellow sponges from these and the two lakes 
previously mentioned are the softest produced in Florida, making them especially 
desirable for bath purposes; they are known to the trade as "Matecumbe," 
wool and yellow. 

The Cowpens are at the eastern limit of sponge growth inside the keys west 
of Cards Sound. They produce few sponges, and those found are usually rollers 
on the soft bottom. 

Biscayne Bay. — Cards Sound, which lies west of Biscayne Bay, contains a 
few yellow and grass sponges and an occasional sheepswool, but has never been 
of importance. There are also a few grass and yellow sponges scattered over 
Cutters Bank, which lies between the two bodies of. water. 

Billies Lake, which lies in the southern part of Biscayne Bay between 
Cutter and Featherbed banks, contains a scattered growth of sheepswool, yellow, 
grass, and glove sponges, and it is stated that in that portion nearest Sands 
Key, which is at present the most productive, the growth was at one time 
prolific. It is probably now restricted by the number of small boats which 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 435 

for years have resorted to the locality. Featherbed Bank Lake lies in the 
deeper water between Featherbed Bank, Ragged Keys, and Black Ledge. 
Small patches of bar scattered over this area in from 7 to 12 feet of water produce 
limited quantities of sheepswool and yellow sponges and large numbers of grass. 

Soldier Key Lake comprises all of the remaining sponge-producing area of 
Biscayne Bay lying between Ragged Keys, Black Ledge, and Cape Florida 
Channel. Most of the sponges are found in the eastern part, near the extensive 
banks which separate the bay from. Hawk Channel, but the work of sponging 
is much interrupted, owing to the general muddiness of the water. Formerly 
large quantities of sheepswool and especially grass sponges were taken here, 
but owing to overfishing their numbers are much reduced, though there is no 
doubt that they still exist in considerable quantities in those places which least 
frequently clear. The sponges of Biscayne Bay are generally loose, "frizzly," 
and inferior, and are therefore not highly valued in the markets. 

Hawk Channel. — The westernmost bed frequented by the spongers lies off 
Pigeon Key. Sponges in commercial quantities are found off the Sisters, at 
Duck Key, Long Key, Lower Matecumbe, from Upper Matecumbe to Tavernier 
Creek, between Tavernier and Rodriguez keys, off Key Largo, between Key 
Largo and Old Rhodes Bank, at Old Rhodes Key and at Ragged Keys. North 
of here they extend as far as Hillsboro Inlet, where the reefs cease, but are now 
never fished. Sheepswool, yellow, glove, and grass sponges are taken on all of 
these beds. Velvet or boat sponges are found along the inside of the reefs from 
the vicinity of American Shoal to Fowey Rocks, and they are not known to 
occur in commercial quantities at any other place in Florida. As they are not 
particularly abundant or valuable and as the water in their habitat is generally 
rough, few of them are taken. 

HOOKING. 

At first the fishery was carried on by wading in the shoal waters in the 
immediate vicinity of Key West, especially to the eastward, the sponges being 
pulled by hand. Later the sponge hook was introduced, originally a two-tined 
sharp hook attached to a pole of moderate length, but latterly the number of 
tines was increased to three, the type now universally employed (text fig. 1). 
With the introduction of this implement slightly deeper waters were explored, 
the fisher standing in the bow of his boat closely scanning the bottom for sponges 
and tearing them loose with his hook as discovered. To calm the ripples which 
interfered with their vision the spongers soon learned to make use of oil, and 
that extracted from the livers of nurse sharks was found to be the best, as it 
forms a tenacious film and at the same time spreads over a wide area of water. 
Thin, light oils are ineffective, as they are speedily dissipated and fail to quell 
the ripples in even a gentle breeze. The oil is usually carried in a wide-mouthed 



436 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



bottle and is sprinkled on the water in small quantities by means of a stick or 
swab, the sponger drifting with the "slick," poling back and forth so as to 
cover its entire breadth. 

This method of sponging is still followed in the vicinity of Key West and 
among the keys where the depth does not exceed 5 or 6 feet, two or three men, 
each with a dingey, cruising about on little sloops, cooking, sleeping, living, and 
to some extent curing their sponges in the most contracted of quarters. They 
usually build small, frail " crawls " of a temporary character, to which they return 
each night while in the vicinity, or else the whole product of the trip is carried 
back to Key West, often in a most unsavory condition, and "crawled" at that 
place. This fishery is now generally followed only during the winter months, 
when the more profitable deep-water fisheries can not be prosecuted on account 

of the weather, or at other 
seasons of the year by the 
less skilled spongers, by per- 
sons temporarily out of other 
employment, or by the local 
residents of the keys. It is 
prosecuted mainly on the 
Key grounds as far as the 
Cowpens and its product is 
small. 

With the growth of the 
demand for sponges and the 
depletion of the beds nearer 
Key West, the search for 
other grounds carried boats 
farther and farther away 
until the Matecumbes were reached. Here it was found that the sponge growth 
inside the keys came to a more or less abrupt limit, but along the northwest shore 
of Hawk Channel, between the keys and the reefs, the workable beds were found 
to extend as far as Norris Cut, a few miles north of Cape Florida. In 1879 this 
appears to have been the known extent of the Key grounds, as is shown by a 
chart of about that date prepared during the canvass for the Tenth Census. Few 
inhabitants then lived on the shores of Biscayne Bay and the beds in the waters 
within that bay and Cards Sound, if known, were rarely if ever worked, although 
soon after that time they were extensively resorted to by the Key West fleet, 
which found sheepswool sponges of rather inferior quality and especially grass 
sponges in large quantities. The sponge grounds were also found to extend; 
along the reefs as far as Hillsboro Inlet, but owing to the prevalence of heavv| 
seas on this part of the coast they were not extensively exploited. 




Fig. 1 . — Hook used by the sponge fishermen of Florida. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 437 

With the extension of the fishery into the deeper waters of the channels 
and some of the "lakes," as the spongers term the broader expanses between 
and behind the keys, the old method of sponging became inadequate. Poling 
became laborious if not impossible, and, moreover, a man standing upright 
in the boat was unable to see the bottom with sufficient distinctness. To 
overcome this difficulty the "sponge glass" or "water telescope" was intro- 
duced, at first a square wooden box or tube with a pane of glass in one end, 
but afterwards an ordinary wooden pail with a glass bottom substituted for 
the wood. The device is said to have been employed first about 1870 or a 
little before, and correlated with its use came other changes. It was now 
necessary to have two men in the boat, one to propel it and the other to search 
for and take the sponges. The skiffs and miscellaneous small boats previously 
employed were displaced by the present type of dingeys, yawls about 14 or 
15 feet long and about 4^ feet beam, light, strong, and handy, with a sculling 
notch at the stern. The latter is an oak board notched at the top, sometimes 
fixed but frequently sliding between guide pieces so as to be removable when 
the boats are hauled aboard the vessel. 

Large vessels also came into use, especially after the development of the 
fishery on the Bay grounds, where the work is carried on often at a distance 
of 20 to 30 miles from shore. The smaller vessels, many of them under 5 tons, 
are employed among the keys where shelter in case of bad weather is usually 
close at hand. The registered vessels range from 5 to about 50 tons, most of 
them being under 15 tons measurement. The majority are rigged as schooners, 
but many of the smaller ones are sloops, as are practically all of the boats 
measuring less than 5 tons employed in the fishery among the Keys. Practi- 
cally all of the boats and most of the vessels have been built at Key West, 
but some, especially the larger ones, have come from other places. 

In the boat fishery from one to five men constitute the crew, the usual 
number being about three. A man working by himself must confine his 
operations to poling in shoal and smooth water, but two or more men, if occa- 
sion demands, may work in rougher and deeper water by using the water glass. 
The vessels carry crews of from 5 to 13 men, according to size, the usual number 
being about 7 or 9, the captains even of larger vessels objecting to crews of 
more than 1 1 on account of the difficulty of controlling the men. The number is 
usually odd on account of the distribution of duties as hereafter explained. As 
a rule the best men get together, as the proceeds of the trip go into a com- 
mon fund from which each man receives his share according to his duties, and 
the presence of an unskilled or lazy man in the crew lessens the catch of the 
vessel and consequently reduces the profits of his fellows. 

When a vessel reaches the sponging grounds, if the weather be favorable 
and the water sufficiently clear, a bar is located by means of the lead or by 



438 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

"sighting" with the water glass, and the crew is sent out in the dingeys, two 
men in each, while the odd man, usually the cook, handles the vessel under 
shortened sail and picks up the boats at noon and night, or when signal is 
made by hoisting an oar blade up. * 

The men in a boat are called, respectively, the sculler a nd the hooker, 

the duty of the former being to propel the boat in obedience to the signals 

of the latter and to assist in handling the hooks when necessary. A proficient 

sculler has. great command of the boat, stopping it almost on the instant, 

; backing, going ahead, or making it spin as if on a pivot, as the exigencies of 

ithe work require. He will keep at work with easy grace all day long, and much 
of the success of the boat depends upon his skill and willingness. Upon the 
hooker devolves the work of finding and catching the sponges. His station 
is in the waist of the dingey, where he kneels, leaning over the side, watching 
the bottom through the water glass, the hook, with its pole, resting conven- 
iently at hand across the gunwales, where it may be seized upon the instant. 
The position is a trying one physically, especially when the sea is choppy, and 
when the waves grow rough the work is impossible. The sponge glass, or 
bucket with its glass bottom below the surface of the water, operates by dis- 
pelling reflections, and to heighten its efficiency the hooker usually wears a 
large "conch" straw hat, which cuts off a large part of the direct light when 
his head is thrust well into the mouth of the bucket. By this means the bottom 
may be seen more or less plainly in clear water to depths of 50 feet. 

When a sponge is sighted the sculler, at a word or signal, maneuvers the 
boat into position, the hooker seizes his hook, rests the pole on his shoulder 
as a fulcrum and with' his right hand lowers it and inserts the tines into the 
base of the sponge, more or less plainly seen through the water glass held in 
position with the left hand. In pulling or tearing the sponges from their 
attachment considerable care and skill is required to prevent mutilation, which, 
of course, impairs their value in the markets. They sometimes adhere so 
tightly that it requires the united efforts of both men to loosen them, and in 
most cases more or less of the base of the sponge is left behind to grow anew 
under favorable conditions into a perfect specimen. From this cause, on bars 
which have been long worked, there are found many sponges of considerable 
diameter, but so low and flat that there is no room for the insertion of the 
hooks, and the hookers, much to their disgust, sometimes waste considerable 
y time in futile efforts to detach them. 

In deep water poles 50 feet long are sometimes employed, and as they 
bow and catch in the water if placed athwart the gunwales they are carried 
fore and aft, the hook over the bow and the other end trailing astern. In 
using these long, heavy poles the sculler always assists the hooker, placing the 
pole on the latter's shoulder and helping to handle it both in lowering and in 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 439 

bringing it up. Even with this assistance the strain on the hooker is great, 
and in working in depths of 40 feet or more cases of hernia and similar injury 
are not infrequent even among strong men. The currents are often strong 
even when the sea appears calmest, and the slender, flexible poles bend and 
sway so that the greatest skill and strength are required to direct and insert 
the hooks. Should the current carry the hooks away from the sponge it is 
often impossible to force them back, and they have to be brought to the surface 
for a fresh effort. 

Cloudy water brought from the swamps by the streams on adjacent shores, I 
and milky water due to the stirring up of the sand and calcareous marls of the 
bottom, are the greatest impediments to this method of sponging, and the 
skill and experience of the hooker are largely exercised in seeing and recog- \ 
nizing the more valuable species under these adverse conditions. The tyro 
after very little practice can hook sponges in clear shallow water, but in depths 
of 15 feet when the water was somewhat roily I have seen one man catch eight 
times as many as another on the same bar, owing to his superior eyesight, the 
two men not differing greatly in the length of their experience as spongers. 

In deep water — that is, in depths over 38 or 40 feet — probably not more 
than one- third of the hookers have sufficient strength, keenness of sight, and 
skill with the pole to work successfully. In consequence of this and the fact 
that only when the water is exceptionally clear can the sponges be seen at all 
in the greater depths, most of the hooking is carried on in less than 6 fathoms, 
and the inshore grounds have been the first, therefore, to become depleted. 
As a general rule the sheepswool sponge is now more abundant outside than 
inside the 6-fathom curve, and it is practically commercially extinct in the 
waters close to shore where it formerly abounded. Experienced captains, 
therefore, are in the habit of running offshore from time to time to "take a 
sight;" that is, to look for bottom with their water glasses, well knowing that 
if the water be clear and other conditions favorable, they can probably take 
more sponges in a day than they could in a week on the overworked inshore 
grounds. The spongers state that while the surface water may be clear the 
lower stratum is often turbid from the bottom materials stirred up by the 
swinging motion generally observed in the deeper waters of the Bay grounds. 

If all the conditions be favorable, which is rare, the harvest is rich for those 
who can stand the arduous deep-water work. In the summer of 1903 an 
unusual condition prevailed in the deep water off the Rock Island region, where 
the water was clear and the weather favorable for a continuous period of many 
weeks. This gave the hookers access to bars in depths as great as 45 to 48 
feet, which had rarely, if ever, been worked, and the result was a heavy catch 
of large, fine, perfect sponges of the best quality, which brought a good price 
in the markets. There has been no recurrence of this good fortune. 



44-0 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

As is elsewhere described, sponges are not distributed uniformly over the 
bottom, but are found only on the scattered bars or rocky outcrops and coral 
growths. Sometimes a score or more will be found in an area of a few square 
feet, and again the same number may not grow on an acre of bottom appar- 
ently equally favorable for their attachment. Knowing this, the sponging 
boats will draw together when one is observed to be making a catch and it is 
not unusual to see dingeys so close to one another that the hookers can hardly 
wield their poles without collision. 

In recent years, where the sponges are much scattered, or the bars small 
and irregularly distributed, the methods of hooking just described have been 
somewhat modified to meet the conditions. Instead of the sculling of the din- 
geys, these are towed by the vessel under shortened sail, sometimes as many 
as four, two astern and one on each side, from booms rigged well out forward. 
The hookers crouch in the sterns of the dingeys, scanning the bottom through 
their glasses, and when a sponge is seen a small buoy with a cord and anchor 
weight is dropped to mark the spot, the painter is cast off from the vessel, and 
the sponge is taken in the manner already described. Much larger areas can 
be systematically covered by this means than by sculling, and regions may 
be fished with some profit where the sponges have become too few and scat- 
tered for the usual methods to yield results. 

In the Key grounds the vessels usually anchor at night close to the spong- 
ing grounds, and in fair weather some of the larger vessels do the same on the 
Bay grounds ; but the greater number run inshore at night and out in the morn- 
ing, thus losing much valuable time, especially when the morning winds are 
light and the conditions are best for work. 

The crews are paid on shares, the distribution of the proceeds of a trip 
being usually as follows: The " vessel " furnishes boats, apparatus, and food, 
and in return receives one-half of the product of the trip. The other half is 
distributed so that the hookers get one and one-fourth share and the captain, 
scullers, and cook one share each. The captain in addition draws 10 per cent 
of the vessel's portion and each member of the crew is usually assessed a small 
sum for the payment of the watchman at the crawls. 

The sponging industry of the United States was virtually introduced from 
the Bahamas, and so far as the spongers themselves are concerned, the fishery 
remained largely in the hands of the natives of those islands until the intro- 
duction of diving. In 1900, according to Cobb, of the 2,113 persons engaged 
in sponging, 1,268, or 60 per cent, were born in the British provinces, and of 
these 1,013 (80 per cent) were negroes. Of the 839 American-born spongers, 
343 (41 per cent) were colored. Taken as a whole, of the persons engaged in 
hooking, about 65 per cent were negroes. Until 1906 neither the numbers 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 441 

nor the proportions above stated underwent material change, but at the 
present time (1909) the number of persons engaged in hooking is considerably 
less on account of competition of the divers, though the proportional national 
and racial representation appears to be about the same. As a class, these men 
are industrious workers when actually on the grounds, but after their weekly 
trips to the crawls it is often difficult to get them promptly aboard the vessels 
again. The system of making advances against their shares of the catch also 
operated against their efficiency, as some crews, when a period of "bad luck" 
made it apparent that at best their earnings would hardly more than suffice 
to pay their indebtedness, would lose all interest in the work and spend their 
time largely in idleness or the most desultory labor. Some crews also fre- 
quently exchanged considerable parts of their stores for intoxicants brought 
by Cuban fishing smacks operating off the coast, either drinking the proceeds 
of the bargain or smuggling it ashore for consumption or sale. This practice 
has latterly been largely broken up by the customs officers, who have at various 
times seized vessels, boats, and persons engaged in it. 

A very recent development in the hook fishery and one which promises to 
become important has been brought about by the legislation prohibiting diving 
during the summer. Certain Greek boats, in order not to be idle at that season, 
provided themselves with dingeys and hooks during the summer of 1908. They 
were so successful that several continued in the fishery during the following 
winter and others are preparing to follow their example. Difficulties with the 
divers and the expense of maintaining the diving boats appear to be operating to 
drive other vessel owners into the business, and as the Greeks have shown 
themselves to be superior to the Bahama and Florida hookers, it would not be 
surprising if the former eventually practically monopolized all methods of 
sponging on the Florida coast. 

In January, 1909, it was possible to institute an interesting comparison 
between the Greek and "conch" hookers. The former were working in deeper 
water and were securing a better and more valuable grade of sponges, superior 
to the catch of their rivals in size, quality, appearance, and curing, factors which 
very materially increased the earnings of the vessel and crew. This is indicated 
by the following records of the catch of two vessels which marketed their cargoes 
on the same day. The schooner Fillmore, manned by 10 Greeks, out 60 days 
and fishing in a depth of 35 to 40 feet, marketed 293 bunches of wool sponges for 
$1,880 and 292 bunches of yellow for $300, a total of 585 bunches, selling for 
$2,180. Another schooner, under one of the best masters and manned by 13 of 
the most skilled negro hookers, sponging for 42 days in depths of less than 30 feet, 
marketed 400 bunches of wool sponges for $889 and 700 bunches of yellow for 
$291, a total of 1,100 bunches, selling for $1,180. This was a yield of $2.16 per 



r 



'. 



442 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

man-day, while the Fillmore averaged $3.63 per man-day, almost 50 per cent 
more. The Greeks not only worked in deeper water, but by curing their catch 
on the boat instead of running in to the crawls at the end of each week they 
lost less time. 

DIVING. 

Prior to 1905 the methods already described were the only ones employed 
in the Florida sponge fishery, although Messrs. E. J. Arapian, of Key West, and 
John K. Cheyney, of Tarpon Springs, had each experimented with diving 
apparatus without material results. In the spring of the year mentioned, John 
Cocoris, a Greek, who had been employed in a sponge house at Tarpon Springs, 
became convinced that the methods employed in the Mediterranean could be 
successfully employed on the Bay grounds, and with the financial assistance of 
Mr. Cheyney he began to get together at Tarpon Springs men and material for 
the experiment. He secured from New York a number of his countrymen who 
had had experience in the sponge fisheries of the Mediterranean, remodeled a 
small sloop to suit the purpose of a machine boat, and in April of that year made 
his first trip and took a large quantity, of fine sponges. ■> 

The success attending this venture produced considerable excitement 
among those engaged in the industry. Those interested in vessels engaged in 
hooking soon recognized a serious competitor in their business and raised various 
objections to the use of the scaphander, some of which were well founded and 
others baseless. In many instances the real objection was not so much the 
actual or alleged injurious effects upon the beds, but a belief that the divers 
would lower the price of sponges by vastly increasing the supply, and that, 
moreover, they could work with profit under market and weather conditions 
which would make hooking commercially impossible. 

During the following winter the opposition crystallized and certain bills were 
introduced in Congress aiming to prohibit or curtail the use of the scaph ander . 
The conflicting interests appeared before the Committee on Merchant Marine 
and Fisheries of the House of Representatives and eventually there were passed 
two bills partaking of the nature of a compromise. On the other hand, sponge 
dealers, buyers, and some vessel owners, together with a number of persons not 
previously connected with the industry, saw apparent opportunity for profitable 
investment, and during the following summer and winter great activity prevailed 
at Tarpon Springs, and to a minor extent at Key West, in getting together diving 
outfits. Diving boats were built in New York, New Orleans, and other distant 
places, some were even brought from Greece, and small schooners were in much 
demand for deposit or living boats. By May, 1906, a little over a year after the 
first successful experiment, there were 50 diving boats at work and 55 more 
awaiting crews, which could not be supplied despite a great influx of Greek 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 443 

divers and boatmen. In the beginning the crews were paid wages, which under 
the competition for competent skilled men that developed, rose rapidly until the 
divers were receiving as high as $300 per month. The old system of advances or 
bounties, which had been the bane of the vessel owners during the preeminence 
of the hookers, was introduced on the diving vessels, and the owners competed 
against one another for the best men and even for those of little experience and 
ability. 

These facts were soon noised abroad among the Greeks and there was a 
heavy influx from New York and a considerable immigration from Greece, until 
within a year there was a Greek colony of not less than 700 to 800 located at 
Tarpon Springs and more were coming on every train. A few Americans also 
engaged in diving, but as a rule they were less successful than the experienced 
men from the Mediterranean and they gradually dropped out of the business. 

Cocoris's experiment was made at a particularly favorable time. The 
great crop of 1903, made under unusual conditions on practically virgin deep- 
water grounds, had been consumed, and the comparatively poor crops gathered 
by the hookers in the succeeding year had left the market largely depleted of 
high-grade goods. To allay to some extent the animosity of the users of the 
established method, the first diving boats went well offshore in depths of 7 to 10 
fathoms, where they found sponges of large size and excellent quality for which 
the buyers were ready to give high prices. Each dealer was anxious to secure 
his full share of the product, and being uncertain as to the possible yield and the 
period during which it would be maintained, prices continued high throughout 
the year, reaching their culmination in February, 1906, when one particularly 
excellent cargo sold for $11 per bunch, the highest price ever paid, the usual 
price for divers' sponges at that time being $8 to $10 per bunch. 

Between January 1 and February 15, 1906, a season when under the old 
methods very little was marketed, over $60,000 was produced by diving. By 
the middle of April about 40 outfits were at work and this number had increased 
to 50 by the middle of May, at which time the yield from January 1 had been 
no less than $250,000 and about $20,000 worth was coming in weekly. The 
boats properly manned were averaging about 500 to 600 bunches per month 
and one got 500 bunches in five days without moving much over a mile. Under 
this heavy supply the price broke sharply and sponges which would have brought 
$8 to $10 per bunch in February were selling for $2.75 to $3 in May. 

•Under these conditions the exorbitant wages of the earlier trips became pro- 
hibitive and the divers were placed on shares, their pay then being more depend- 
ent upon their own skill and industry. In some cases the other members of the 
crew were on shares, but about May 1, 1906, when wages were paid, the man- 
agers or overseers, stern oarsmen, and life-line men, received $75 to $80 per 
months and the pumpers and bow oarsmen from $50 to $60. Under the 



444 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



discouragement of low prices for sponges and the demoralized condition of the 
labor problem, some of the diving outfits were withdrawn from service and 
tied up, while others recently built or acquired never went into commission. 
Other owners, unable to deal efficiently with crews speaking an alien tongue, 
gave up the attempt to operate directly and chartered their boats and outfits 
to Greeks, who have thus gradually assumed a practical monopoly of the diving 
operations, though under the navigation laws it is necessary for them to 
employ citizens of the United States as nominal masters of the living or deposit 
boats. 

There was also about this time a change in the quality of the product. 
Previously there had been but few small sponges and the large ones were per- 
fect forms, but in May, 1906, there were many small ones in the cargoes and 
many of the large ones were old, ragged, and inferior, about 30 per cent of 
the whole being packed as cuts and seconds. One typical cargo packed as 
follows : 



Sizes. a 


W 


;ight. 


Per cent. 




Pounds. 

41 
139 

140 
160 

[ 500 

180 
520 


2. 44 + 
8.27 + 
8.33 + 
9.52 + 












29. 76 + 










30.95 + 






Total 


1.680 









<* The sizes are based on the number of sponges or pieces per pound. 

The depreciation in quality was apparently due, in some degree at least, 
to a change in the locality of the fishery. The Greeks, feeling that they were, 
in a measure, interlopers, at first treated the prejudices of the hookers with 
considerable respect and carried on their work far offshore, on virgin or little 
worked beds, where the run of sponges was large and the quality good. It 
was stated that some cargoes came from a depth of 14 fathoms and there were 
reports, never properly authenticated, of diving in still greater depths, but 
there is no doubt that the major portion of the catch came from depths of 
between 40 and 60 feet. As it became more apparent that the divers were 
not to be seriously molested, despite the loud threats of some of the hookers, 
they became more confident and encroached more and more on the beds in 
shoaler water, where, of course, they took the same class of sponges brought 
in by the hookers. The arduousness of diving and its physical perils increase 
with the depth of water, and the divers will not work in deep water if they 
can get sponges in the shoaler. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 445 

The first diving or machine boats used in Florida were small sponging 
sloops from which the cabins were removed and which were otherwise remodeled 
to suit the requirements. The pump was installed in the hold, from which 
the hatch was removed, the sides were built up and pins or crutches, two on 
each side at a considerable height above the deck, were provided for the sweeps. 
A shorter mast was introduced and rigged with a spritsail. 

It was soon found that these boats were heavy and clumsy for the work, 
and boats of the Greek type (pi. xxix) were speedily introduced and are 
now almost universally employed. They are " double-enders " with high bows 
and sterns and considerable shear, making them good, dry sea boats in any 
weather, either under way or at anchor, and they are spritsail rigged. More 
recently gasoline engines have been placed on many of the boats, the propellers 
being guarded by cages to prevent fouling of the hose or life line, an accident 
which might readily prove fatal to the diver at work. The machine boats are 
also provided with two pairs of stout crutches, to which the sweeps are slung 
by rope loops or grommets, and on each side amidships is a rail about 18 inches 
high, with a sailcloth curtain or screen stretching to the gunwhales. When not 
in use the oars or sweeps rest fore and aft on the crutches. On the starboard 
side forward is a heavy ladder, hinged so that it can be swung outboard or 
stowed inboard as required, and of sufficient length to extend 2 to 2 Y / 2 feet below 
the surface of the water. This is an essential feature of the machine boat, as 
without it the diver in his heavy cumbersome armor could be brought aboard 
only with extreme difficulty. The Greek boats have each a circular hatch for- 
ward, in which stands the man using the water glass. The machine boats of 
the Greek type are about 32 feet long and about 11 feet beam on deck, and, 
fully equipped with a good pump and gasoline engine for propulsion, cost 
about $2,000. 

The pump is of the usual type employe'd in diving operations, is placed 
amidships in the boat and when not in use is covered by a hatch to protect it 
from the weather. The diving dress consists of a helmet, breastplate, shoes, 
and weights. The suits, which are made of several sizes to suit the physical 
proportions of the divers, are of double waterproof cotton cloth with rubber 
between and completely cover the body with the exception of the hands, a 
close-fitting rubber cuff being provided at the wrists, and a heavy rubber yoke 
or collar extending across the breast, back, and shoulders. The helmet is of 
tinned copper with three heavy glass windows at the front and sides and one 
obliquely above in front. At its back are two valves, one with a connection 
for the hose and the other for the discharge of vitiated air. In some helmets 
the latter valve is automatic, but few of the Greek divers will use this, preferring 
those in which the escape of air from the helmet is regulated by the diver, the 
valve being held in place by a spring and released by pressing against it with the 



446 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

back of the head. The fresh air is conducted in flat tubes from the intake 
toward the front side of the helmet, serving the double purpose of supplying 
unvitiated air for respiration and preventing condensation on the window. The 
hose is of the best quality, covered with a canvas jacket to protect it from 
abrasion and with tight screw couplings between the sections, the weight of 
the unions being compensated for in the water by cork floats. The rest of the 
hose is of itself sufficiently buoyant when full of air. 

In preparing to descend, the diver dresses in heavy woolen underclothing 
and stockings, and thoroughly soaps his hands and wrists to permit pulling 
on of the rubber cuffs and to secure closer contact at the wrists. With assist- 
ance he then crawls into his suit; the breastplate, covering the upper part of 
the breast, back, and shoulders, is inserted inside of the rubber yoke, which 
is provided with eyes fitting over corresponding screw lugs on the breastplate 
and the two are clamped to a water-tight joint with thumb screws and brass 
straps. Stout weighted leather shoes, brass soled and tipped, are then securely 
strapped on the feet. In the meantime the interior of the helmet has been 
washed and the air supply tested by placing water in the helmet to determine 
whether the air bubbles freely through the intake valve when the pump is 
operated. The pump is then started slowly and the helmet secured to the 
breastplate by an interrupted screw, the joint being made water-tight by means 
of a rubber gasket. The helmet is then lashed to the breastplate, the front and 
back weights of lead are lashed on, the hose brought under the left arm and 
lashed to the waist and the life line is fastened tightly around the body under 
the arms. 

The diver is then ready to descend, and with his burden of about 200 pounds 
is assisted to the side, where he either jumps, or rather falls overboard, or else 
climbs down the ladder, the pump being run more rapidly as needed to supply 
the air pressure commensurate with the depth in which the diver is working. 

The crew of a machine boat with their stations when at work is as follows : 
Two divers, who alternate on account of the arduousness of their duties r one rest- 
ing while the other is at work ; these men are always particularly abstemious 
as to food and drink, no alcohol being used and the daily meals consisting 
of a cup of coffee in the morning and a hearty dinner at night when the day's 
work is over. Three oarsmen; the bow oars are pulled each by one man 
sitting down, but the stern oarsman stands facing forward and pushes two 
sweeps, which are balanced by heavy weights near the handles so as to reduce 
the fatigue of rowing. Two pump men and one relief who manages the 
hose when not pumping. One life-line man, whose important duty it is to see 
that the life line is kept clear and that the signals of the diver are promptly 
regarded; experienced and careful men are required for this station, as the 



Bul. U. S. B. F., 1908. 



Pirate XXIX. 




Fig. 1. — Diving boat, with cured catch. Shows diver's ladder triced up. 




Fig. 2. — Diving boat hauled out. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 447 

efficiency of the diver's work and not infrequently his life depend upon intelli- 
gent communication between him and the boat, while delays and misinter- 
pretation of signals are always annoying and in case of the emergencies likely 
to arise in this class of work are exceedingly dangerous. One hoseman, the 
relief from the pump, who pays out or takes in hose as the diver moves away 
from or approaches the boat; a surplus of hose trailing out in strong currents 
impedes the diver in his progress over the bottom, and should the hose become 
fouled, pinched, or kinked the supply of air may be cut off with possibly 
serious results. When moving from place to place the hose tender relieves 
the stern oarsman, and the bow oarsmen and pump men alternate at their 
respective duties, thus obtaining some rest. On boats provided with gasoline 
engines there is sometimes in addition a man to run the engine. 

At the present time a the rates of pay are based on shares as follows : The 
operator furnishes the boats, outfits, and provisions and receives one-half of the 
gross proceeds of the trip, the remainder being divided into shares, of which 
the divers receive 2^ or 3, the life-line tender and stern oarsman \ x / 2 , and the 
others of the crew 1 each. 

The deposit or living boats are usually schooners, such as are commonly 
employed in the hook fishery, most of them between 10 and 20 tons register. 
They furnish the living quarters for the crew and a place of deposit for the 
sponges, most of which at present are cured aboard, as is done in the Mediter- 
ranean. They carry in addition to the diving crews a master, one deck hand, 
and a cook, the former being a citizen of the United States, as required by 
the navigation laws. To each deposit boat, according to its size, there are 
attached one or two machine boats with their crews. During the first year of 
the fishery one schooner was fitted for three diving crews, but it has never gone 
into commission, on account of the depression of the price of sponges and the 
lessened profit of operation. Most of the boats carry but one diving crew. 

The method of carrying on the fishery is as follows : When the vessel arrives 
in approximately the region where she wishes to work, the bars are located by 
sounding with the lead or by towing a small grapnel lashed in such manner as 
to trip when it fouls. When a bed of suitable size is found, it is marked with a 
buoy and the machine boats are sent away. Since the latter have been equipped 
with engines, they themselves frequently search for the bars. The diver then 
dresses as before described and descends, taking with him a netting bag about 
2 feet deep and 18 inches or more in diameter, with a hinged hoop at the top 
closing like the frame of an old-fashioned carpet bag. The boat, propelled 
either by the oars or by means of the engine, follows him in his progress 
over the bottom, which is marked by a stream of fine bubbles escaping from 

a This statement applies January, 1909. 






V 



448 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

the wristbands of the suit and by sudden eruptions of large ones discharged 
from the relief valve, which he opens from time to time by throwing his head 
back against the helmet. 

He regulates the air supply with two purposes in view — respiration and a 
proper degree of buoyancy in his suit. If all is working properly the suit is 
always more or less inflated, and in spite of the great weight of the man and his 
armor, 350 to 400 pounds as weighed in air, he treads the bottom with a pressure 
of but a few pounds. Should insufficient air be liberated the suit becomes still 
more inflated and its buoyancy will carry him to the surface, a method frequently 
employed in making ascent from moderate depths, but liable to produce serious 
hygienic consequences if practiced under greater pressures. If the pump be 
working too rapidly or too slowly he gives the proper signal by jerking on the 
1 life line, and the supply of air is modified accordingly. 

In moving over the bottom the divers do not walk as do persons on land, a 
thing impossible owing to their levity and the resistance of the water. Their 
movements are rather a series of headlong springs or dives upward and forward 
with the body strongly inclined. 

As the diver finds the sponges, which in the region in which the work is 
carried on are of but four kinds — sheepswool, yellow, wire, and grass — he tears 
them loose and places them in the bag, which when full he signals to have pulled 
up on the life line and an empty one sent down. When he wishes to come up, 
he gives the signal and walks toward the side of the boat, the direction of which 
The can determine by the trend of the life line, or else he buoys himself to the sur- 
face and is hauled in hand over hand, rotating and rolling like some monstrous 
form of the deep, with the air whistling and gasping at intervals from the relief 
valve. Reaching the ladder, he laboriously ascends with the assistance of one or 
two members of the crew, his helmet is taken off, and, unburdened of his chest 
v and back weights, he comes aboard to be relieved by his diving mate, j 

The length of time that a diver can safely stay submerged depends upon his 
physical strength and endurance, but especially upon the depths in which he 
works. On the Florida coast, where sponging is generally carried on in less 
than 60 feet, the usual shift is about two hours down and two resting, but fairly 
good divers can stand longer shifts. 

The maximum depth at which divers can work has been a matter of dispute 
among the spongers, but there is no doubt that they can go much deeper than 
they have ever yet gone on the Florida coast (about no feet), though at the 
greater depths their efficiency decreases and they become subject to serious 
maladies, which will be discussed later. The laws of Greece, for humanitarian 
reasons, prohibit diving at greater depths than 38 meters (125 feet), but it is 
said that the Mediterranean sponge divers sometimes work in 40 fathoms (240 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 449 

feet). Siebe, a recognized authority, states that 150 feet is the maximum limit 
for safe diving by physically sound men, and that the greatest diving feat known 
is a stay of forty -two minutes in a depth of 201 feet. 

The proceeds of a sponge diver's work depend upon a number of condi- 
tions — his own skill and industry, the condition of the water, and the abundance, 
size, and distribution of the sponges on the bottom. During the spring and 
summer of 1906, when the boats were working in from 40 to 60 feet of water, 
with good average weather conditions and sponges relatively abundant, two divers 
working alternately were taking on an average about 20 bunches a day, or, making 
allowance for time lost from various reasons, between 25 and 30 bunches per 
working day. One of the most successful trips averaged 50 bunches per day 
for each diver, or about 500 bunches in five days for the boat. For single days 
this average has been considerably exceeded. 

During the season for diving, which under act of Congress began October 1 , 
1907, and closed April 30, 1908, the conditions were far from favorable, the 
weather especially during the winter and spring being unusually turbulent and 
the water almost constantly turbid. In consequence of this the divers were 
working closer to shore, in water of much less depth than the minimum pre- 
scribed by law, and in April I saw two boats operating even within state juris- 
diction. The sponges brought in were ragged and inferior in size and quality, 
and many of them were, moreover, poorly cleaned. The proportion of small 
sponges was large, the limit prescribed by law being almost wholly disregarded, 
as was also the case during the season preceding. I saw large quantities of 
small sponges in some of the packing houses, and it is a matter of common 
notoriety in Tarpon Springs that many small sponges packed in bags are shipped 
by the Greek spongers without ever being exposed to sale at the Sponge Ex- 
change. 

Owing to the unfavorable weather the product per outfit during the 
season from October 1, 1907, to May 1, 1908, was much below that stated 
above, averaging about 300 bunches per boat per month. The total yield was 
$392,399, as compared with $638,766 the year before, but this was due in 
part to the restriction of the diving season to seven months during the period 
least favorable for work. The character of the catch during the season is 
indicated by the fact that 50 per cent of the sponges were larger than twelves, 
about 12 per cent were twelves or smaller, and 38 per cent were packed as cuts 
and seconds. The yield was inferior in quality to that of the first year of the 
fishery, but Was about the same as in 1906, excepting that the proportion of cuts 
and seconds was higher. 

During the winter of 1908-9 the yield of sponges on days when the weather 
was favorable was from 10 to 15 bunches per diving boat. The following actual 

B. B. P. 1908 — 29. 



450 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. N 

returns will illustrate the average catches during the months of December and 
the early part of January : 

Diving boat Amphitrite, out two months: 

172 bunches sheepswool, selling for _ . $1, 292.05 

60 bunches small sheepswool, selling for 116. 00 

253 bunches yellow, selling for 289. 50 

84 bunches grass, selling for 47. 00 



569 bunches all kinds, selling for 1, 744. 55 

Diving boat Harikila, out two months : 

160 bunches sheepswool, selling for $1, 353. 00 

59 bunches small sheepswool, selling for 117. 18 

205 bunches yellow, selling for 259. 00 

70 bunches small yellow, selling for 34. 00 

94 bunches grass, selling for ■- 55. 00 

588 bunches all kinds, selling for 

Schooner Edna Louise, with two diving boats, out seventeen days 

250 bunches sheepswool, selling for 

75 bunches small sheepswool, selling for 

444 bunches yellow, bid refused 

115 bunches wire, bid refused 



I 


818. 18 


- $1 


398. 00 




IOI. OO 




248. 00 
83.00 







884 bunches all kinds, bid 1, 830. 00 

These figures give an average per boat day of about 1 3 bunches of sponges 
of all kinds, selling for $35. 

As compared with hooking, diving requires a more expensive equipment. 
The smaller vessels of the old fleet are not suitable for living boats, for the crews 
are necessarily large and require the same accommodations needed for an equal 
number of hookers, especially as the sponges are now cured on the vessels. In 
addition, the diving or machine boat, with its pumps, suits, and gear, is much 
more costly than the sponge hooks, glasses, and five or six dingeys which 
constitute the secondary equipment of the hooker. The expense of operation 
and maintenance is also greater, and to pay expenses the yield per man must be 
considerably larger. 

To compensate for this, diving has several advantages: It can be carried on 
in rougher and more turbid water and at greater depths, and, moreover, the diver 
can get sponges inaccessible to the hooker working on the same beds. In 
practice, too, the diving crews can be kept more persistently at their work, and 
the Greeks are less prone to lose time running inshore at night unless under 
stress of weather. When diving was first introduced on the Florida coast it 
was claimed that but rarely would the sea be so turbulent as to stop operations. 
Experience, especially that of the last season, has shown that this fishery also is 
more or less at the mercy of the weather and that while it can be prosecuted 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 45 1 

when hooking" would be absolutely impossible the frequent gales and strong 
northers which sweep the Gulf of Mexico in winter and early spring are factors 
that have to be reckoned- with, and the proportion of days of enforced idleness is 
considerable. 

The turbidity of the water is also a factor, and while it is rarely absolutely 
prohibitive, as with the hookers, it at times more or less seriously interferes with 
the efficiency of operations. When the water is clear and the light good, the 
diver can see plainly at a distance of some yards, but on cloudy days in turbid 
water sponges more than a few feet away will escape notice, especially if the 
bottom be covered with gorgonians and similar growths. It will be readily 
understood that under such conditions the efficiency of the diver is much reduced, 
so that he must necessarily miss many sponges that would be readily found under 
more favorable circumstances, and that while moderately clear water is not 
essential, as in the earlier methods of sponging, its relative prevalence is reflected 
in the balance sheet at the end of a trip. 

The ability of the diver to penetrate to a depth beyond that accessible to the 
hooker is of value only if sponges extend into the deeper water. That this is the 
case to some extent has already been demonstrated, but there is as yet no 
indication that the beds extend to depths equal to those attained in the Medi- 
terranean. The advantage in the efficiency of the two methods at depths of 40 
feet or more, where the hooker is approaching his limit, is vastly in favor of the 
diver, who can work there in average weather, while the hooker can operate only 
under very rare combinations of favorable conditions. 

Finally, the diver is able to gather sponges which, while within the limits of 
the hooks, are so situated as to be invisible or inaccessible from above. As has 
been stated elsewhere, the bottom on the beds is rough and irregular, and many 
sponges grow in crevices, on overhanging ledges, or hidden by masses of coral, and 
can not be gathered by the hooker. The diver walking over the bottom can find 
and secure almost everything, stripping the bottom almost bare if he wishes. 

■ KILLING AND CURING. 

When a sponge is brought to the surface a certain amount of air immediately 
enters its pores and replaces the water in some of the canals and chambers. In 
this condition it will float, and the spongers, taking this as a sign of death, 
believe that the sponge is killed immediately upon exposure. If the floating 
sponge be left to itself, however, most of the entrapped air is soon expelled 
by the pressure of the water and it will then sink and become a "roller." The 
air can also be expelled without injury to the sponge by gently squeezing it 
under water. The hookers have always killed their catch by prolonged exposure 
on the decks of the vessels, the sponges being carefully placed "root" down, so 
as to facilitate the escape of the "gurry," or liquefied organic matter which 



452 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

results from decomposition. In hot sunny weather death comes rather quickly 
and the internal tissues begin to slough in a day or two, but when it is cold and 
cloudy a week of exposure is sometimes insufficient to kill the tissues throughout, 
the result often being the retention of more or less hardened matter in the sub- 
stance of the cured sponge, to the detriment of its value and very difficult to 
remove by subsequent treatment. The spongers recognize this fact, but being 
imbued with the idea that the sponge is dead as soon as removed from the water 
they ascribe it not to retained vitality but to what they call " chilling," a physical 
change in the fleshy substance of the sponge which causes it to resist decay. 
During the process of killing some care has to be exercised to prevent the skin 
from drying and adhering to the skeleton. 

Each hooking vessel has located somewhere along shore at a point accessible 
to the sponge grounds an incldsure called a "crawl" or " kraal," about 10 feet 
square, constructed of stakes driven close together and nailed to horizontal 
pieces to keep them from spreading. Among the keys the crawls are usually 
isolated, small, and of a temporary character, but on the Bay grounds they are 
more substantial and grouped under the care of a common watchman to prevent 
the depredations liable to occur during the distant absences of the owners. 
The Bay fleet has groups of crawls near Cedar Keys Light and at Baileys Bluff, 
Sawyers, and Union Crawl, just north of the mouth of Anclote River, and at 
various times they have been established at other localities. In these inclosures 
the dead sponges are placed to macerate, the organic matter undergoing rapid 
decomposition and liquefaction. This method appears to have originated in 
the Bahamas, the first sponges produced in Florida being rather poorly cured, 
principally because they were not thoroughly beaten and squeezed. It is 
stated that for similar reasons the first product of the Bay grounds was regarded 
as inferior to the Key sponges and sold at a lower price. 

I Usually on Friday night the vessels run in to the crawls, and Saturday is 
/ spent in "crawling" the dead sponges of the recent catch and cleaning those 
/ deposited on the Saturday previous. During the week most of the fleshy 
matter has macerated and washed out and the remainder is removed by 
beating the partly submerged sponge with a short heavy stick and by repeated 
squeezing under water. If particles of skin adhere they are scraped off with 
a dull knife. The crawls are always located in salt or brackish water, as mac- 
eration in fresh water darkens the fiber of the sponge. By means of a long 
needle the cleaned sponges are then strung on rope yarns 6 feet long, the ends 
of which are tied together to form wreaths, technically known as "bunches," 
which are partly dried and stowed in the hold of the vessel pending the end 
of the trip. The approved method is to string together sponges of approxi- 
mately the same size, "eye and root" — that is, with the top of one sponge 
against the bottom of its neighbor — but some captains will have their catch 



6 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 453 

strung so as to make the largest possible number of bunches by placing the 
minimum number of sponges on each, a subterfuge which rarely deceives the 
watchful buyer, who reduces his bid accordingly. / 

The diving boats at first followed the same methods, but afterwards to 
obviate the loss of time involved in making the weekly trips to the crawls and 
to save the expense of employing watchmen they recurred to the method of 
cleaning on the vessels, to which they had been accustomed in the Mediterranean. 
The sponges as taken are placed on deck and thoroughly trod under the bare 
feet of the crew, so as to hasten death by crushing the soft tissues. They are 
then hung over the side to macerate, after which they are washed out on deck 
in tubs of sea water. The results of this method of cleaning were at first regarded 
J as less satisfactory than of that practiced by the hookers. Occasionally more or 
A. less solid matter is retained through imperfect killing and maceration, and in 
r addition the water in the tubs is sometimes allowed to become thick and gela- 
tinous with partially dissolved animal matter, which, adhering to the fiber, 
makes- the sponge hard when dry and sticky when moist. When sponges so 
treated are thrown on the beach, sand and dust adhere to the surface, injuring 
the color and making pure goods look as if "loaded." When properly per- 
formed, however, the results are good. Less sand is picked up by the sponges 
than when they are rolled about in the crawls, and as the animal matter is more 
quickly removed there is less injury to the fiber of the sponge than if the macera- 
tion be more prolonged. The sponges are also lighter in color and cleaner in 
appearance, while the soluble animal matter left in the sponge by the washing 
in tubs is appreciated by the buyers as adding to the weight. 

THE SPONGE TRADE. 

Buying. — The first sponges produced in Florida were sold to one or two 
'merchants at Key West or exchanged for goods at a fixed price of 10 cents a 
pound, but as the demand increased competition for the product grew also an 
the method of selling at auction developed. 

At Key West, which held an absolute monopoly of the trade until about 
1 89 1 , a wharf is set apart as a sponge market, the buyers each paying for its use 
a fee proportional to the amount of their purchases. Here the spongers bring 
their catch and spread them, sorted according to kinds, in piles arranged to 
show them to best advantage, the sponges being wet to swell them to their 
largest proportions. At appointed times the buyers assemble, and, proceeding 
from pile to pile, bid for each^separately, basing their offers upon the number 
of bunches and the size and quality of the sponges. Each buyer writes his bid 
upon a slip of paper and hands it to the person appointed for the purpose,' who 
when all bids are in reads them off, the highest taking the lot, though the owner 
may elect not to sell at the price offered. Intending buyers usually examine the 



454 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

several cargoes offered before the sale begins, and the bids usually run pretty 
close, though I have seen a bidder, through some miscalculation and his anxiety 
to buy, offer 40 per cent more than his nearest competitor. 

At Tarpon Springs until recently the sponges were sold at the several 
crawls at such times as the spongers chose to offer them. As the crawls were 
several miles from the town and separated from one another by considerable 
distances, much time was often lost in the disposal of relatively small quantities. 
To obviate this a sponge exchange has been organized by the buyers, who have 
bought a suitable site on the river near town and have erected houses and bins 
suitable for the storage of their purchases. The expenses of construction and 
operation are borne jointly by the buyers, or the houses which they represent. 
The actual sales follow the system already described. Tarpon Springs first 
became a sponge mart on a small scale about 1891 , and at the end of ten years it 
had passed Key West in importance. With the waning of the catch on the 
Key grounds, and especially with the development of diving, it has now secured 
a practical monopoly of the business and Key West has become an almost 
negligible factor. 

Packing. — As purchased from the fishermen the sponges are cleaned of 
animal matter, but they are more or less irregular where they have been torn 
from the bottom, and they frequently contain shells or fragments of coral and 
rock. After they are received at the packing house these foreign particles are 
removed and the irregularities and torn parts clipped off with sheep shears, the 
" clippers " requiring some skill to reduce the sponge to a regular shape with a 
minimum of waste, the work being done to best advantage while the sponges are 
wet. Large specimens, for which there is a limited demand, and especially 
those which are torn or contain crab holes, are cut into pieces with a sharp 
knife, the edge of which has been serrated with a file. Nearly all Anclote or 
Bay grass sponges, which are usually large and cup-shaped or conical, are so 
treated, as are at times considerable quantities of sheepwool and yellow sponges. 
There is always more or less loss in cutting up large sponges owing to the waste 
of trimming off the sharp edges left by the knife. After being trimmed the 
sponges are sorted according to size and quality, the whole perfect specimens 
being known as " forms," those with holes and similar imperfections as " seconds," 
while cut pieces are known as " cuts. " The sizes are named from the number of 
"pieces" required to make a pound, the usual sizes being "ones, twos," 
"twos to threes," "threes to fours," "fours to sixes," sixes to eights," "eights 
to tens," "tens to twelves," "twelves to sixteens;" and "sixteens to twenties." 
The "sizing" is usually made by eye, but in some cases, for greater accuracy, 
the sponges are passed through holes or rings. 

The first sponges shipped from Key West were packed in cylindrical bales 
about 6 or 7 feet long and compressed by hand or treading with the feet, but within 



* 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 455 

a few years a dealer versed in the methods of the Bahama fishery introduced 
the present type of square bales. These vary in size according to the demands 
of the trade, the standard weights being 15, 30, 50, and 60 pounds. But one 
size, kind, and grade of sponges is placed in a bale, the pieces being packed in 
layers and rows, due care being exercised that when the head of the bale is 
opened the contents shall present the best possible appearance. A simple screw 
press is used for compression of the bale to about 40 per cent of its hand-packed 
thickness. The bales while still under pressure are sewed up in burlap and 
corded with jute rope y A or -Hs inch in diameter. They are then weighed and 
marked with a card giving the date, the kind and grade, the weight, and the 
number of pieces. The sponges are packed almost dry, so that the pieces when 
relieved from pressure remain compressed until moistened. Owing to the 
hygroscopic character of sponges, the weight of the bales fluctuates in accordance 
with atmospheric conditions, moisture being absorbed in wet weather and 
discharged in dry, and dealers and jobbers selling sponges by the bale frequently 
keep their stocks in damp places for the sake of the gain in weight. When reason- 
ably dry, baled sponges will keep for years without deterioration, but if allowed 
to become wet, especially with fresh water and in warm weather, they some- 
times "heat" and turn yellow or orange in color, with more or less loss of 
strength of fiber. 

During ten years or so preceding the inception of diving, owing to the 
limited supply of sponges and their high price, there grew up a practice of 
" loading" by which the weight was increased by the addition of foreign matter 
of various kinds. In later years this practice became so extravagant that 
practically all Florida sheepswool sponges were loaded to double their natural 
weight and in some cases the increase was 150 per cent. The fact of loading 
was well known in the trade and what was originally a deception became in 
the end a sort of legitimate fraud which deceived nobody, though the degree 
to which it should be practiced was a source of constant controversy between 
the packers and the jobbers. The process was originally fraudulent, but 
eventually absurd, the same amount of actual sponge being obtainable at 
about the same price, whether loaded or pure. In fact, a pound of pure sponge 
could usually be obtained at a slightly lower cost than double the quantity of 
goods loaded 100 per cent, the packer having to reimburse himself for the 
labor and materials consumed in loading. In addition, the quality of the 
loaded sponge was injured by reason of the gritty materials employed, which 
detracted from its usefulness for the finer purposes in the arts. 

The methods of loading were supposedly kept more or less secret by the 
various packers, but, as a matter of fact, they differed only in minor details. 
The clipped sponges were placed in tanks containing a "dope" composed of 
water, glucose, glycerine, dextrin, salt, litharge, sand, and similar materials; the 



456 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

whole being thoroughly stirred or tramped under foot to keep the heavier mate- 
rials in suspension and incorporate them in the texture of the sponge. At first ( 
the excess of moisture was squeezed out by hand or with a clothes wringer, but 
later, when the desire for heavier loading became strong, the sponges were 
merely drained dn a rack and then placed in the sun to dry. 

^~When the supply of sponges was temporarily increased through the intro- 
duction of the diving machine and the price fell, loading was almost abandoned 
and most of the goods were shipped pure. But during 1908 the practice again 
developed, though the loading did not exceed about 25 per cent. At the begin- 
ning of 1909, with an increase in the price, there was a tendency to increase the 
percentage. The sand, salt, and glucose which formed the bulk of the old load- 
ing have been replaced by barytes, epsom salts, and dextrin, which are less 
gritty, not so hygroscopic, and more readily worked out. The present desire to 
increase the loading will probably induce the use of sand, as it is difficult to get 
the added weight without it. 

Bleaching. — The sponges used in the arts are usually in their natural condi- 
tion so far as color is concerned, but for bath purposes ( many persons prefer them 
bleached. 

A fine whitish bleach which does not greatly injure the quality of the 
sponges may be imparted by repeatedly impregnating them with dense soap- 
suds and exposing them to the action of sun and air. 

A bright yellow color, such as is generally seen in the bath sponges of the 

shops, maybe produced as follows: Soak the sponges for about ten minutes in 

5 per cent hydrochloric or sulphuric acid; then thoroughly wash in water and 

place in 5 per cent potassium permanganate solution until they have assumed a 

very dark brown, almost black, color; thoroughly wash again in fresh water and 

place, until almost decolorized, in a 10 per cent solution of oxalic acid. After 

another very thorough washing place them in a 10 per cent solution of sodium 

carbonate (washing soda) until they assume a bright yellow color. A very 

thorough washing completes the process. The fiber of all chemically bleached 

sponges is more or less injured by the treatment, and though softer they are 

I inferior to the natural sponges in durability and resiliency and soon become 

h soggy in use. 

/L^_X?" STATISTICS. 

No statistics of the Florida sponge fishery are available for years prior to 
1880, and no complete canvass, separate from the general fisheries of the state, 
was made until 1900. The following tables" exhibit in some detail the extent 
of the fishery in the years 1903 to 1908, inclusive, embracing the transition period 
during which hooking was largely supplanted by diving. 

a Compiled from a canvass made by Mr. John N. Cobb, Bureau of Fisheries. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 



457 



The difficulties in dealing statistically with this period have been consider- 
able, as persons, and especially vessels, have been engaged, in many cases, part 
of the year in hooking and part in diving. In each such case, however, effort 
has been made to accredit the vessel to that method in which its activities pre- 
dominated during each year. 

The tables are interesting as showing not only the changes in the methods 
of the fishery, but also as exhibiting the shifting of the location of investment 
incident upon these changes. Until the inauguration of diving the investments 
at Key West (Monroe County) were paramount, but in 1906 Tarpon Springs 
(Hillsboro County) passed Key West as a center of investment, as it had done 
som'e years previously as the principal sponge market. In 1908 the capital 
employed in the fishery at Tarpon Springs exceeded that at Key West by about 
85 per cent. 

In the tables of the product for the years 1903 to 1908, inclusive, the weight 
is based upon the number of bunches purchased. In previous years it was 
determined from the pack, a method highly defective on account of the practice 
of "loading." 

Persons Employed in the Sponge Fishery of Florida in 1903- 1908, by Counties. 





Monroe. 


Hillsboro. 


Pasco. 


Levy. 


Franklin. 


Total. 




I9°3- 


1,033 
700 


84 
164 


13 


16 


52 
23 


1 tq8 






887 












Total. 


1.733 


248 


13 


16 


75 


2 


n8<T 




1904. 






88 S 
630 


64 

112 




16 


50 
20 


1 




















Total 


1. SIS 


176 




16 


7°' 


1 






1905- 








816 
721 


177 

117 




21 


32 1 1 
25 1 








86? 










Total 


1.537 


294 




21 


57 


1 






1906 








681 
59S 


613 

221 


13 


30 


48 
13 


1 


iRl 




8-n 










Total.. 


1 . 276 


83 4 


13 


3° 


61 


2 






1907. 






495 
490 


570 
462 




27 


34 
10 


1 


T?fi 
















Total 


985 


I.03 2 




27 


44 


2 


088 




190S. - 








5S3 
392 


9IO 

397 


1 


20 
18 


1 








807 












975 


I.307 




38 















458 



BULLETIN OK THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



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THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 



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THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 



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THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 465 

For purposes of comparison and to illustrate the statistical history of the 
Florida sponge fisheries, another series tables have been prepared. They embrace 
all years for which accurate returns are available. The data for 1903 to 1908, 
inclusive, are summaries of the preceding tables here first published, and for 
the years prior to 1903 are obtained from previous publications of the Bureau of 
Fisheries. 

The returns of the investments in the sponge fisheries prior to 1900 are incom- 
plete or inseparable from those in other fisheries, and the same statement applies 
to the personnel. The yield of the fisheries is known for a longer series of 
years, though the earlier returns are not so fully itemized as are those for the 
years beginning with 1900. It will be observed that all of the tables indicate a 
general shrinkage in the fishery until 1 905 , when the success of the experiment 
with diving apparatus administered a stimulus and largely revolutionized the 
methods. Since that time there has been an increase in the total investment, 
the number of vessels employed, the personnel of the fishery, and especially in 
the volume and value of the catch, though the latter reached its maximum, so 
far as the sheepswool sponges are concerned, in 1906. In that year the quan- 
tity of sheepswool sponges alone far exceeded that of all kinds in any previous 
year in the history of the fishery, and the value was greater than that of the 
entire yield of the fishery in any year before or since. 

In 1907 and 1908 the production of sheepswool sponges fell between 35 and 
40 per cent, and to an even greater extent in value. This retrogression in the 
production of the highest grade of sponges was due to legal restrictions placed 
on diving, which became operative in 1907. 

Accompanying this decrease there has been an enormous increase in the pro- 
duction of the cheaper sponges, especially yellow and grass, and the entrance 
of the previously neglected wire sponge into the markets as a valuable product. 
The production of yellow sponges in 1908 was about fourfold that of 1905, and 
about 50 per cent more grass sponges were put on the market, while 8,494 
pounds of wire sponges, valued at $1,385, were marketed in 1908, and the 
product of 1909 will much exceed this in quantity, with a value relatively much 
greater than in 1908. 

Diving apparatus has undergone a rapid increase, but it is probable that 
its maximum has now been nearly reached, and its future development will be 
slower. There was a steady decrease in the number of vessels and men employed 
in the hook fishery between 1900 and 1905, and since that year the decrease has 
been rapid. Between 1900 and 1908 the number of vessels and men employed 
in hooking each fell about 54 per cent, and the product decreased about 45 per 
cent. At the present time there are indications of an increase in this method 
of sponging, certain of the diving vessels manned by Greeks outfitting with 
hooks and dingeys for work during the summer, when diving is prohibited. 

B. B. F. 1908 — 30 



4 66 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Investment in the Sponge Fishery op Florida, excluding Sponge Buying, for a Series 

of Years. 



Item. 


1880. 


1900. 


I903- 


1904. 


No. 


Value. 


No. 


Value. 


No. 


Value. 


No. 


Value. 




102 


8162,050 


156 
1.750 


S182. 151 


140 
1,699 

243 


$215. 185 


123 
1,378 

208 


$178,765 




Outfit 






115.499 
178.465 


71, 690 

ios.750 

98.535 


61.305 
88,400 








228 


Outfit. 






77.945 


Apparatus, vessel fishery: 


















3. 153 




2,948 




2.485 


Apparatus, boat fishery: 










3.223 
12.375 




2, 661 

S. 9oo 




2,591 






TctaL _ 
















502, 669 




417,591 


1 i 






Item. 


1905. 


1906. 


1907. 


1908. 


No. 


Value. 


No. 


Value. 


No. 


Value. 


No. 


Value. 


Vessels _ _ _____ 


US 


$185,580 


9 8(?) 

1. 571 

207 


$155, 260 

68,49s 
91 . 010 
82,128 

3 2 , 400 
1. 133 

8, 262 
2.545 
5. 800 


116 
1,682 

216 


Si64,8 3 5 


145 
2, 203 

190 


$233,425 


Outfit 


68,360 
99. 980 
87,875 

6, 600 
2,353 

600 
2.923 
5, 600 


90,873 
97.300 
71.S00 

27. 600 
1,668 

18, OOO 

2,288 

5. 000 


101, 143 
100, 450 
38,640 

53,4oo 
1. 713 

20, 400 
1,496 

4. 600 


Boats _. _ - - i 2 34 

Outfit. 


Apparatus, vessel fishery: 




Apparatus boat fishery: 






TotaL _. _ _ 






459,871 




447. 033 




479.064 




555,267 


1 



Craft Engaged in Hooking and Diving, Respectively. 



Craft. 


1880. 


1900. 


1903- 


1904. 


1905. 


1906. 


1907. 


1908. 




102 


156 
228 


140 
243 


123 
208 


104 
233 

12 
1 1 


Sl(?) 

193 

69 

47 


69 
186 

78 
47 


72 
156 
123 

73 


Boats 



























Persons Employed in Hooking and Diving, Respectively. 



Craft. 


1880. 


1900 


1903- 


1904. 


1905- 


1906. 


1907. 


1908. 




828 


1. 239 

874 


1, 198 
887 


1, 015 
762 


893 
850 


639 

633 


457 
542 


S68 
410 








TotaL 




2. 113 


2,085 


1. 777 


1. 743 


1. 272 


999 


978 














153 
13 


746 
196 


669 
420 


945 

397 


Boats 
















TotaL 








166 


942 


I. 089 


1.342 














2. 113 


2,08s 


I. 777 


1,909 


2, 214 


2.088 


2,320 







THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 

Products of the Florida Sponge Fishery, by Kind and Grounds. 



467 



Kind and grounds. 


1880. 


1889. 


1890. 


1895- 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


















Key 






1 












1" 












1 




231, 272 






















1 1 






Key ... 






[ 


















Total 






: 1 




29. 509 


























Key 




! 1 


! 




















1 




21.387 






















1 




23,952 




Key 




::::::::: :::::::::i::::::::: 


















Total 




1 | 1 




23. 952 




















...1 ! 








































207, 000 


$200, 750 


$316. SS9 


$381,087 


366, 772 438, 682 


306. 120 


386, 871 







Kind and grounds. 


1896. 


1897. 


1899. 


1900. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 












126, 700 
27, 000 


$278. 390 
54.000 


123. 017 
58. 294 


$356,045 
127, 218 


Key - 


I ! 












149, 724 


$248, 196 


157. 476 


$240,599 


153. 700 


332.390 


181,311 


483, 263 














28, 000 
27, 000 


7, 205 
9, 000 


32,433 

42,033 


18, 097 
25.948 


Key _ _ 1 














Total __ 


23.055 


9,318 


32.362 


13. 082 


55.000 


16, 205 


74,466 
















59.4oo 
17, 500 


11 . 819 
2, 500 


71.686 
71. 426 


15,516 
17. 747 


Key 


1 














Total 


44. 617 


11,508 


128 622 


29, 188 


76, 900 


14, 319 


143. U2 


33. 263 
















386 

6, 422 


64 

5. 256 










8, 000 


4, 000 












Total 










8, 000 


4, 000 


6,808 


5,320 














18,315 


3.990 


13,086 


3. I7i 






1, 185 
11, 243 


168 


Key 


10, 000 


1, 000 














Total 


I8.3I5 


3. 990 


13.086 


3. 171 


10, 000 


1 , 000 


12,428 














1 


1 !__.. 










1 I 1 










Total 


1 


1 






























214, 100 
89, 500 


297, 414 
70. 500 


228, 707 
189,418 


389.890 
177. 795 
























236,3H 


273, 012 


33L546 


286, 040 


303, 600 


367. 914 


418, 125 


567,685 





468 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

Products of the Florida Sponge Fishery, by Kind and Grounds — Continued. 





19 


01. 


1902. 


I9°3- 


1904. 


Kind and grounds. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 










188,265 
31,069 


8361,930 
49.632 


155.056 
39.883 


$286,017 






















Total 


202,673 


$422,561 


133.518 


$297,727 


219.334 


411. 562 


194.939 


346, 784 












54. 153 
7.848 


14, 602 
3.788 


38. 294 
13.378 


10.827 




1 




6.356 










Total 


62,512 


39.290 


56.787 


31. 113 


62. 001 


18,390 


51.672 


17.183 












60, 272 
23. 109 


9. 721 

5.073 


33.386 
27,886 




















Total _. 


108,748 


24, 210 


140. 682 


29. 76s 


83.381 


14.794 


61, 272 




























1. 715 


862 


2,637 


















8.307 


4, 660 


1. 715 


862 


2.637 














21, 627 


6.679 








1 










11, 484 


1.738 


8.783 
















Total 


21, 627 


6, 679 


7.365 


1,111 


11, 484 


1.738 


8.783 


1. 164 


































98 


16 
















Total 






230 


46 






98 


16 






















302, 690 
75. 225 


386.253 
61,093 


226, 736 
92.665 


























395, 56° 


492, 740 


346,889 


364,422 


377. 915 


447.346 


319.401 


376, 185 







Kind and grounds. 


19 


35- 


19 


_6. 


1907. 


19c 


8. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Sheepswool: Bay 


173.721 
61, 840 


$408,322 
75. 122 


412,364 
18,850 


$773,583 
27.854 


255. 212 

23, 122 


$435,400 
34. 669 


261, 923 

47.758 


$422, 700 
61,853 




Total 


23S.561 


483,444 


431, 214 


801, 437 


278,334 


470, 069 


309, 681 


484.553 






31.312 
13.758 


12, 199 
7,035 


94. 610 
10, 328 


32,914 
6, 240 


230, 139 
14. 153 


67, 269 
5.994 


180. 956 
9.7S8 


38.768 
4.361 






Total - 


45.070 


19, 234 


104, 938 


39. 154 


244. 292 


73. 263 


190, 714 


43. 129 






26. 91 1 
40,530 


4,485 

11, 951 


II.370 
35.395 


2.346 
10. 063 


91, 146 

40, 492 


17, 105 
10, 906 


93. 170 
i6,447 


12,355 

4,87s 


Key _ 




Total... _._ _____ _ 


67,441 


16, 436 


46,765 


12, 409 


131.638 


28, on 


109, 617 


17, 230 






• 














Key _ 


2.377 


1,350 


1,322 


489 


221 


98 


2,681 


2, 043 


Total 


2.377 


i.35o 


1.322 


489 


221 


98 


2.681 


2.043 
















Key.. . 


13. 161 


2, 210 


6,655 


1,094 


1.472 


'308 


1.302 


536 




Total. _ . 


13, 161 


2, 210 


6.655 


1,094 


1.472 


308 


1,302 


536 






1, 142 
35o 


164 
88 








8,414 
80 


1,375 








13 


2 










Total 


1. 492 


252 






13 


■ 


8.494 


1.3S5 








Total: Bay grounds 

Key grounds .. 


233,086 
132, 016 


425. 170 
97, 756 


518,344 
72.550 


808. 843 
45. 740 


576,497 
79,473 


519.774 
5L977 


536.049 
86. 440 


473.823 
7S.OS3 




365, 102 


522, 926 


590,894 


854,583 


655.970 


571. 751 


622, 489 


548.876 





THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 
Catch on Bay Grounds, by Apparatus. 



469 





1905- 


1906. 


1907. 


1908. 




Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 




9, 250 

164,471 

572 

30, 740 

172 

26, 739 


$47,506 

360.816 

225 

11,974 

30 

4,455 


318,728 

93,636 

77, 060 

17,550 

4.642 

6,728 


$610,986 

162, 597 

26,841 

6.073 

939 

1,407 




177,354 
84,565 

147,496 

33,454 

55.944 

37, 226 

8,414 


$324,055 
98,645 
33,414 
5,354 
8,555 
3, 800 
1,375 




70, 780 
185,058 
45,o8i 
29,344 
61,802 


104. 254 

54, 680 

12,589 

6,573 

10, 532 














1, 142 


164 




















Total: Diving 


9,994 

223,092 


47,76i 
377,409 


400, 430 
117,914 


638, 766 
170,077 


398,834 
177,663 


392,399 
127,375 


389,208 
155, 245 


367.399 
107,799 








233,086 


425, 170 


518, 344 


808, 843 


576,497 


519, 774 


544, 453 


475, 198 





Note. — All sponges from the Bay prior to 1905 and all from the Keys to date were taken by hookers. 

FOREIGN SPONGE TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The foreign sponge trade of the United States has attained considerable 
proportions, amounting to $735,571 during the year ended June 30, 1907. 
The growth in the imports of sponges and the sources from which they 
are derived are shown in the following table: 

Imports of Foreign Sponges into the United States. 



Year. 


North 
America. 


Europe. 


Asia. 


Oceania. 


Africa. 


Total. 




















:::::::::::: 








1885 . _ - - 












1 1 








416, 718 






























_ 


$454.o7o 
453. 137 
374.4i8 


$88,444 
107,877 
113.830 


$181 
3.051 

178 


$17 














$31 


488, 426 









The decrease in 1907 was in the imports from Cuba and the Bahamas and 
was due largely to the heavy crop of domestic sponges in the preceding year. 
The imports of Mediterranean sponges, with which our own product does not so 
sharply compete, exhibited an increase. 

During the past five years the exports of domestic sponges have been as 

follows : 

Exports of Sponges from the United States. 



Europe. 



North 
America. 



South 
America. 



Africa. 



Total. 



1903 
1904 
1905 
1906 
1907 



$42,545 
23,472 
11,645 
27.481 
99, 686 



$6,553 

9. 700 

4.773 

14.321 

11, 217 



$652 
653 
550 

544 
506 



I, 728 
1,386 
1,359 
2,413 



$245 

1,033 

26 

221 

532 



Pounds. 


Value. 


95, 159 


$50,306 


64, 214 


36, 646 


31, 7oo 


iS,39o 


5o,953 


43, 926 


136,301 


H4,354 



470 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

The heavy increase in the exports for 1907 was also due to the large crop in 
the preceding year, which for the time being glutted the American market and 
materially reduced the price of the better grades of sponges. Ordinarily it is 
the lower grades only that are exported. 

In addition to the foregoing sponges of domestic origin there were exported 
foreign sponges, principally Bahaman and Cuban, to the value of $153,452 in 
1905, $152,675 in 1906, and $132,791 in 1907, most of them going to France, 
Great Britain, Germany, and other countries of Europe and to Canada. About 
90 per cent of the export trade is in New York, and practically all of the rest in 
various ports on the Canadian border. 

V. OTHER WESTERN ATLANTIC FISHERIES. 

BAHAMA ISLANDS. 

The sponge fisheries of the Bahamas date from 1841, when, it is related, the 
value of the native product was recognized by a French sponge dealer who had 
been wrecked in the archipelago, and who shipped a sample lot to Paris. 

Sponge grounds. — The principal beds lie on Great and Little Bahama banks, 
Exuma Bank, and the shoals about Eleuthera, and differ considerably in their 
product. The sheepswool and velvet sponges from Little Bahama Bank, espe- 
cially in the vicinity of Abaco Island, are known as Abaco wool and velvet, as 
distinguished from "Nassau" or "Cay" sponges, coming from other parts of 
the Bahamas. They are soft and fine, the velvet being the best of that variety 
known to commerce, are packed separately, and bring a higher price in the 
market. It is stated that owing to the demand for these sponges and the conse- 
quent overfishing, the beds have been more or less exhausted and many of the 
sponges now sold as Abaco wool and velvet are in reality selected specimens 
from other grounds. 

The Great Bahama Banks, which extend north, west, and south of Andros 
Island and along the Old Bahama Channel, produce large quantities of wool, 
velvet, yellow, and grass sponges, but these are generally open in texture, coarse, 
and weak, especially those from the southern and southeastern parts of the 
bank. Many of them grow on gorgonians (sea feathers) or corals and are 
frequently pierced by large holes, which mar an otherwise spherical shape. 
In this region all of the four varieties named generally have the lamellae more 
or less thickened to form cushions or flat-ended brushes, so that they all have 
surfaces more or less remotely resembling that of velvet sponges. The region 
from which these sponges come is known to the spongers as "The Muds." 

The banks about Eleuthera, which were discovered about 1883, produce a 
somewhat better quality of sheepswool, but not equal to those of Little Bahama 
Bank. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 



471 



The best of the grass sponges come from Long, Acklin, and Turks islands 
in the southeastern part of the Bahamas, but as a rule they are packed with 
those from other localities. Though the larger part of the banks lie far beyond 
the marine league, the Bahama government assumes jurisdiction for purposes 
of protection and prohibits the operation of foreign sponging vessels. In 1902 
or 1903, several vessels from Key West were seized on Great Bahama Bank and 
the masters and several members of the crews were imprisoned at Nassau, but 
were ultimately released. The men were well satisfied to secure their own 
release and escape the confiscation of their vessels, and no test was made of the 
legality of the procedure. 

From the view point of the perpetuation of the sponge beds it is not improba- 
ble that the Bahama govenment is justified in adopting these measures and 
others with like purpose, for as long ago as 1875 it was claimed that the beds 
were becoming exhausted by overfishing. The same claim is made to-day, 
especially with regard to the more desirable kinds, and in view of the increased 
demands on the beds in recent years it is probably warranted, notwithstanding 
that the product has steadily grown in quantity and value. 

In 1849 the total exports of sponges were valued at $10,752, and between 
1850 and 1853 the average annual exportation was valued at $50,052. The 
averages at other periods have been as follows: 1855 to 1858, 255,300 pounds, 
valued at $54,097; 1866 and 1869, 625,850 pounds, valued at $164,900; and 
from 1873 to 1875, inclusive, 313,733 pounds, valued at $103,673. 

The exports in more recent years are shown in the table below: 

Exports op Sponges from the Bahama Islands, 1880-1905. 



Year. 



880 
881 
882 
883 
884 
88 S 
886 
887 
sss 
889 
890 
891 
892 



Pounds. 



429. 400 
379. 700 
612, 500 
541 . 600 

. 274. 000 
808, 200 
676, 500 
622,300 
789,044 
703. 163 
917, 784 
987, 400 

,011, 200 



Value. 



S168, 
147. 
286, 
244. 
220, 
254. 
2IS. 
229. 
238, 
251. 
306. 
284, 
317. 



125 
207 

310 
216 
932 
498 
918 
118 
198 
598 
195 
607 



1893 

1894 

1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1 90 1 

1903 
1904 
1905 



Pounds. 




844 


300 




89^ 


600 




96S 


200 


1 


365 


900 


1 


228 


047 


1 


207 


683 


1 


124 


SS5 


1 


165 


406 


1 


517 


597 


1 


SIS 


626 


1 


407 


958 


1 


48O 


128 



Value. 



$284. 282 
286, 901 
327,690 
393. 291 
437.038 
472,933 
407,414 
505,462 

a 665. 890 
506. 310 
512, 732 
55L702 



a 15 months, January i, 1901, to March 31, 1902. 

It will be observed from the foregoing that the exports have shown a steady 
increase during the past twenty-five years, and as practically the entire catch is 
shipped abroad the statistics cited can be regarded as an index of the yield of the 
fisheries. During the decade ending with 1889 the average annual product was 
683,640 pounds; in that ending with 1899 it was 1,054,569 pounds, while for five 
years ending with 1905 it was 1,350,993 pounds. 



472 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

There is here no intrinsic evidence that the beds are being depleted, but 
in the absence of data showing the intensity of the fishery no conclusions of 
value can be reached. There are no details available which would permit a 
comparison of the catch per man, though there is unofficial authority for the 
statement that "about 3,000 men and boys" were employed in the fishery 
about 1880, while official returns show that more than twice that many were 
employed in 1902. 

Methods of the fishery. — The methods of fishing for sponges in the Bahamas 
are essentially those which have been described as in use in Florida prior to 
the introduction of the diving machine in 1905, and the history of the develop- 
ment of the industry is parallel. Practically all of the sponges are taken by 
means of hooks, by poling and sculling, though a few are secured by wading 
and naked diving. The methods of curing and packing are the same as those 
employed in Florida and the entire product passes through the sponge exchange 
at Nassau. 

In 1902 there were employed in the fishery 265 schooners of from 5 to 43 
tons and 322 sloops of from 1 to 16 tons, in all 587 vessels with an aggregate 
tonnage of 5,952. Attached to these vessels were 2,517 dingeys and crews 
numbering 5,517 men and boys. In addition there were engaged in the shore 
fisheries 291 boats and 445 men and boys, while the packing houses employed 
258 persons. 

The sponge fishery is the most important industry of the islands and over 
half of the product is shipped to the United States. The following statement 
shows the exports for 1 905 : 

Exports of Sponges from the Bahama Islands in 1905. 



Russia.. 
Canada . 
Italy . _ . 



Pounds. 


IO 


441 


I 


457 


4 


396 



Pounds. 

United States 864,658 

Germany 254, 494 

Holland 158,488 

France 95, 715 

United Kingdom 95,499 Total..- 1,485,148 

CUBA. 

Sponge grounds. — The sponge beds of Cuba are found on both the north and 
south coasts, the latter supporting the more important and productive fishery. 
There are a few inferior sponges, principally a hard quality of velvet, on the 
north coast of Pinar del Rio, but the productive beds of the north coast are 
all among the numerous keys between Cardenas and Nue vitas. These beds 
were known before the discovery of the Batabano grounds and were resorted to 
by the Bahama spongers under license from the Spanish authorities. They lie 
in shallow water within and about the line of keys which skirts the Nicholas and 
Old Bahama channels, opposite the important beds of the Great Bahama Bank. 
It is stated that these beds have become greatly depleted by overfishing and 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 



473 



they now produce but about 20 per cent of the total product of the Cuban fishery. 
This region is the source of practically all of the Cuban reef, hardhead, and silk 
grass sponges. Sheepswool and velvet are now comparatively scarce, but the 
former are stronger and better than the product of the south coast. Certain 
vessels from Key West which visited this region in 1898 or 1899 reported com- 
paratively few sponges and returned with practically none. Caibarien is the 
principal center of this fishery, but some of the product is sold in Cardenas and 
Nuevitas. There are one or two buyers located on the coast, but it is also peri- 
odically visited by buyers from Batabano. 

The most important beds of the south coast lie in the vicinity of Batabano, 
between the main island and the Isle of Pines, from Cayos de Felipe to Cabeza 
del Este. This region is dotted with numerous small islands, keys, and rocks, 
and over most of the bottom the depth is less than 3 fathoms and in very few 
places does it reach a maximum of 6 fathoms. Outside of the banks in the Carib- 
bean Sea, however, the bottom slopes rapidly to profound depths. Sponges are 
also found among the keys and shoals off Santa Clara Province, but no com- 
mercial fishery has been developed in that locality. 

The grounds off Batabano were discovered in 1884 and an attempt was made 
to secure a concession monopolizing the exploitation of the beds. Fortunately 
this was frustrated and the beds were reserved as a common fishery. In 1891 
there were upward of 180 spongers at Batabano alone, and the yield of the 
fisheries in that region was valued at about $110,000 per year. Since then 
there has been a heavy increase in the yield and the annual product is valued 
at about $275,000 to $350,000, as based on the declarations for export. As a 
general rule, however, the imports into the United States are subjected to 
revaluation, and it is difficult to arrive at a definite estimate of the first value 
of the fishery to the spongers. 

The exports, which represent, the entire catch for both coasts, for the fiscal 
years ending June 30, 1 903-1 906, have been as follows: 

Exports of Sponges from Cuba, 1903-1906. 



Exported to — 


1903- 


1904. 


1905. 


1906. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


Pounds. 


Value. 


United States 


381, 462 

357, 4IO 

47. 934 

48, 726 

20, 288 


$146, 076 

210, 589 

13. 470 

13.819 

7.500 


332.534 

384.478 

38.612 

35. 607 

57,449 


S155.099 

231, 140 

12, 242 

9. 398 

23.581 


366,388 

185,427 

19.S97 

18,301 

11. 730 

13. 900 

2,055 

2, 013 


$200, 296 

114.438 

7,764 

8.319 

6.028 

2,952 

840 

750 


325,872 

195.683 

23. 008 

26, 514 

19.883 

no 




France 

United Kingdom 


133,062 

8,818 

13,400 

9. 629 








1. 243 

2, 200 
3.148 


1, 800 

1, 000 

850 








Holland 












2,285 

1,712 

392 


1, 200 
368 
2S0 






Italy 


























Total 


862,411 


395, 104 


853,069 


433.3o8 | 619. 711 1 341.387 1 591.070 


326,571 



474 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

I have not been able to obtain reliable data showing the quantity of sponges 
shipped in preceding years, but for 1900 to 1902, inclusive, the average annual 
value of the exports was about $460,000. It will be seen, therefore, that during 
the past four or five years there has been a steady shrinkage in the value of the 
catch and a still greater falling off in its quantity. Between 1903 and 1906 the 
quantity of sponges exported, and presumably the quantity fished, shrunk 
over 30 per cent. 

Methods of the fishery. — After experiment with the scaphander and naked div- 
ing, both of which proved expensive or inefficient, and with a species of grapnel 
dragged over the bottom, the method of hooking, essentially similar to that 
practiced in Florida and the Bahamas, finally became established as the most 
satisfactory and effective and is now generally employed, though a few sponges 
are taken in the shoaler waters by wading. 

The first spongers were former Spanish sailors from the Balearic Islands, 
but there are now a number of Greeks and Cubans engaged in the fishery. The 
sponges are cleaned as in the United States and are then strung on cords, each 
holding a dozen sponges of uniform size or half that number of larger individuals. 

They are sold at auction by the merchant owning or outfitting the vessel 
instead of by the master, as in Florida, being hung up in festoons for inspection 
for some time before the sale. There is no regular sponge exchange, as at Nassau 
and more recently at Tarpon Springs, the sales being conducted in some con- 
venient coffee house, where the buyers congregate and hand in the bids on slips 
of paper, the highest bidder securing the lot. The method of stringing the 
sponges by sizes and count which is established by law is more systematic than 
that followed in Florida, and the buyer can more readily determine the value of 
the cargoes offered for sale. 

MINOR FISHERIES. 

Honduras. — Sponges are found along the entire coast of British Honduras, 
in the shallow waters about the numerous islands, rocks, and banks, but they 
are inferior in quality and not many are placed on the markets. The varieties 
found are sheepswool, velvet, and grass, the latter almost worthless. Many of 
the sheepswool, velvet, and grass sponges grow attached to staghorn corals and 
gorgonians, the removal of which leaves large holes penetrating the cured 
sponge and detracting from its value. Others are irregular from growing among 
marine growths or on the sides of rocks. The characteristics of some specimens, 
however, lead to the expectation that better grades will be found in deeper 
water. The velvet sponge in particular has some good qualities. 

The value of the exports of sponges to the United States during recent 
years has been as follows: 1903, $1,218; 1904, $50; 1905, $915; 1906, $1,949, 
and 1907, $2,331. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 475 

Nicaragua. — A very few sponges are produced on the coast of Nicaragua 
and other Central American countries. In 1905, the exports to the United 
States were valued at $50. 

Mexico. — The sponge beds of Mexico lie on the north and east coast of 
Yucatan, on Campeche Banks and about Cozumel Island. The beds which have 
been exploited lie in very shallow water and the sponges are very inferior, but 
it is said that there are better grades in the deeper water toward the southern 
end of the east coast. The exportation from Mexico is very small, in 1906 
amounting to but $218 on shipments to the United States and $250 on ship- 
ments to France. During the five years from 1903 to 1907, inclusive, the total 
exports to the United States were valued at but $1,214. A- very few American 
vessels have sponged off the Mexican coast in recent years, but the value of 
their catch is not definitely known. Several years ago a vessel with two diving 
boats operated for three seasons off Cozumel. Large yellow sponges were found 
in abundance, but the few sheepswool sponges taken were so much inferior to 
those of Florida that the venture never paid. 

Colombia. — The United States consul at Cartagena says, in 1907: 

The bay of Cartagena is rich in sponge beds, and the local fishers for sponges find 
some fine in quality and large in size. These are handled in a crude way by the "bum- 
boat ' ' men only, and sold alongside vessels in the harbor, no effort being made to export 
them in a business-like manner. 

The Consular Reports for 1903 noted the granting of concessions on both 
the Atlantic and Pacific coasts which included the sponge fisheries, but nothing 
is known of the value of the beds. The only Colombian sponge of which the 
author has definite knowledge is a hardhead closely resembling that from 
Honduras. This is said to be very abundant. The writer ventures to predict 
that the sponge fauna will be eventually found to embrace all of the principal 
kinds of American commercial sponges, though it is doubtful whether they will 
prove of very high quality. 

Venezuela. — Weil states that there are sponges on the coast of Venezuela, 
but that they are hard, incompressible, not very porous, and practically worthless. 

Jamaica. — A few velvet sponges, elsewhere described in this paper, are 
taken from the waters of Jamaica, but the fishery is of comparatively little 
importance. 

Santo Domingo. — The principal sponge beds are about the Island of Gonaves, 
in the Republic of Haiti. They produce velvet and reef sponges which are both 
inferior in quality and generally poorly prepared for the market. The spongers 
are Greeks, 5 or 6 in number, and fishing but occasionally produce sponges with a 
value of but $600 or $800 per year. 

Commercial sponges similar in general to those of other parts of the Carib- 
bean are known zoologically from Porto Rico, the Danish West Indies, and other 
of the Lesser Antilles. 



476 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

VI. SPONGE FISHERIES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN AND CONTIGUOUS 

WATERS. 

The Mediterranean produces the finest and most valuable sponges known to 
commerce, but they differ greatly in quality in different regions. Broadly 
speaking, the commercial varieties are five in number — the Turkey cup, toilet, 
zimocca, elephant ear, and honeycomb; but these are subdivided in the sponge 
trade into numerous sorts in accordance with the localities from which they come 
and the means by which they are taken, and then are still further distinguished 
by grades of quality and even by the nationality of the fishermen who take 
them. Sponges are found along the European, Asiatic, and African shores from 
Gibraltar to Port Said, but it is in certain places only that they exist in such 
numbers as to support a fishery. These regions will be taken up for considera- 
tion in more detail hereafter. 

West of Sicily and Cape Bon, in Africa, the fishery is unimportant and 
almost negligible, and the finer varieties, the toilet and cup sponges, are prac- 
tically absent. To the eastward of a line between the places mentioned the 
fishery is highly important and one of the most valuable in the Mediterranean. 
Owing to long-continued overfishing the supply from the Adriatic, the iEgean, 
and the Levant is smaller than formerly, and to meet the increased demand of 
the markets there has been in the last twenty-five to thirty years a most important 
development of the fisheries of the African Coast from Alexandria to the western 
frontier of Tunis. 

The very finest grades come from the Levant, and the quality falls toward 
the westward along both the north and south shores. In the waters contiguous 
with the Mediterranean Sea, commercial sponges are known from the Dar- 
danelles, the Sea of Marmora, the Bosphorus, and the adjacent parts of the 
Black Sea, but the quality appears to become progressively lower and the quan- 
tity less in the order named. In the Red Sea there are said to be vast quanti- 
ties of sponges, but their quality is inferior and their value small. 

It is difficult to form more than an estimate of the value of the Mediter- 
ranean sponge fisheries, owing to the nomadic habits of most of the fishermen. 
The Greeks, both national and Turkish, carry on their operations not only at 
home but in almost every part of the sea which promises anything like a lucrative 
return. The Italians, while not quite so wandering, extend their operations 
across the Mediterranean to the Tunisian coast, and both they and the Greeks 
vary somewhat in their practice of marketing their catch, sometimes selling it 
in the native markets but often carrying it to their home ports, where its identity 
is lost by mixing it with the products of other localities. 

In the following pages an endeavor has been made to present such statistical 
information as is available relating to the number of men and boats engaged and 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 477 

the value of the product. The transshipments between the various markets 
make it difficult, if not impossible, to state the value as a whole, and while the 
available figures, official and otherwise, have been used, the following must be 
regarded as an estimate: 

Spain and France (estimated) $9,000 

Adriatic : 

Istria and Dalmatia (estimated) $10, 000 

Gulf of Taranto (1902) 22,000 

32,000 

Mgean Sea, including Crete and sponges brought from the African coast and Lampedusa(i90i) 1,090,000 

The Levants 113, 000 

Tripoli ( 1 904-1 905 average) 237, 000 

Tunis (1904) 435 , 000 

Lampedusa, etc. (1904) 123,000 

2, 039, 000 

This does not include the sponges sold at Benghazi nor the Egyptian catch, 
but as there are undoubtedly some duplications, it may be assumed with some 
assurance that the annual product of the Mediterranean fisheries is valued at 
not far from $2,000,000. The various fisheries, considered more in detail, are 
as follows: 

SPAIN AND FRANCE. 

For years sponges have been known to exist on the Spanish coast, but until 
recently practically no attempt was made to develop a fishery. Explorations 
during the past few years have developed the existence of workable beds about 
the Balearic Islands and on the adjacent coasts of Catalonia and Valencia, par- 
ticularly on the banks in the vicinity of the Columbretes Islands between Majorca 
and the Spanish Peninsula, and a small quantity of elephant-ear, zimocca, and 
honeycomb sponges have been taken there with scaphanders. The Spanish 
Government has taken steps to encourage the industry, and in 1903 there were 
10 Greek diving vessels at work, but in 1904 these had dwindled to 2, and since 
then there have been none. Sponges are also found on the coast of France east 
of Marseilles, but they are scattered and few in number and have not been com- 
mercially exploited. Zimocca, elephant-ear, and honeycomb sponges are also 
found off the southern coast of Corsica and of recent years have been taken in 
small quantities by means of the diving machine. 

ADRIATIC SEA. 

The sponge beds of the Adriatic appear to have been always less prolific 
than those of many other parts of the Mediterranean, and they have suffered so 
severely from the fishery that they are now of comparatively little importance. 



478 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

They occur about the shores of the numerous islands of the Istrian and Dal- 
matian coasts south of Trieste in a depth of water not exceeding 10 fathoms. 

According to Faber, the toilet sponge comes from the vicinity of the islands 
of Incoronata and Zara Vecchia, the zimocca sponge is confined mostly to the 
coast of Istria, while the honeycomb sponge is generally distributed along the 
coast. The honeycomb or horse sponges of the Adriatic are rather brittle and 
inferior to those from other localities. The fishery employs from about 150 to 
200 men, who fish from small boats by means of harpoons and tongs during the 
good weather between March and October. The average catch per boat manned 
by two men is said by Faber to be about 300 to 400 pounds per year, the total 
yield being about 32,000 pounds, worth about $10,000. 

In 1902 about 11,000 pounds of sponges of good quality, valued at from 
$1.80 to $2.30 per pound, were taken in the Gulf of Taranto. This small fishery 
is carried on mainly by Italians, but in 1901 seven Greek boats, manned by 28 
men, took about 1,500 pounds of sponges, which were marketed in Greece at 
about $1.30 per pound. 

/EGEAN SEA AND ASIA MINOR. 

The sponge beds about the Greek and Turkish islands of the Archipelago 
and along the coast of Asia Minor have been important from ancient times and 
have produced a race of bold and hardy fishermen, who have gradually extended 
their operations into all parts of the Mediterranean and within the last few years 
to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. 

The beds are scattered generally over the iEgean, in the Gulf of Salonica, 
the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, and the Bosphorus, but the principal centers 
of the fishery are in the Cyclades and Sporades, about the islands of Rhodes, Cos, 
Symi, Calymnos, Samos, Patmos, Hydra, Kharki, Kramihdi, iEgina, and Crete. 

In these waters the sponges are taken by naked diving, the harpoon, the 
dredge, and the scaphander. The first two methods are the older, the last two 
having been adopted at a comparatively recent date. The fishery with the scap- 
hander is now prohibited in the waters of Samos and Crete, and the advisability 
of expelling it from the waters of the Cyclades has been the subject of animated 
though futile debate in the Greek Parliament. 

The sponge beds of this entire region are much less prolific than formerly, 
and much of the blame is ascribed to the diving machine. Many of the best 
sponges are now found in crevices, caves, and under overhanging rocks which 
abound along the shores of the islands of the iEgean, and being inaccessible to 
harpoons and dredges are taken only by the divers, especially those not using 
the diving dress. These sponges are generally denser and finer than those more 
directly exposed to the light. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 479 

All varieties of Mediterranean sponges are found in these waters. The 
honeycomb sponge of the Cyclades is rather coarse and open in texture, but in 
Crete and many of the other islands it is of excellent quality. The other varieties 
are generally excellent, but not equal to the Syrian sponges, though those from 
the vicinity of Smyrna are coarse and open in texture and inferior in quality. 

The sponge fishery is the most important and profitable of the fisheries of 
the i5jgean and it ordinarily employs between 4,000 and 5,000 men, accurate 
statistics being difficult to obtain, owing to the nomadic habits of many of the 
spongers who, as it has been stated, travel to all parts of the Mediterranean. 

During the summer of 1903, 318 vessels under the Greek flag alone em- 
ployed 2,494 men m the sponge fisheries. There were 134 vessels, using 158 
diving outfits, upon which there were employed 599 divers and 1,255 others. 
Thirty-six vessels with gangavas (dredges) employed 173, while 122 craft 
engaged in harpooning were manned by 443 persons. The operations of these 
vessels appear to have extended over a considerable part of the Mediterranean, 
and two crafts were used solely in the transportation of supplies to the African 
coast. 

In 1900 sponge fishers of the Sporades produced about $900,000 worth of 
sponges and in 1901 about $810,000 worth, and in the same years there were 
exported from Piraeus $171,791 and $280,048 worth, respectively, but undoubt- 
edly a considerable proportion of these were taken on the African coast and 
the banks of Lampedusa. 

The commander of the Greek hospital ship Kreta estimated that the Greek 
spongers took, in various parts of the Mediterranean in 1902, about 350,000 
pounds of sponges, valued at about $1 ,000,000. In 1902 the exports from Piraeus 
were valued at $214,180. In 1901 toilet sponges from the Sporades averaged 
from $8 to $13 per pound and honeycomb sponges from $2.75 to $4. The 
United States consul at Smyrna writes that during more recent years the price 
was from $4.65 to $15.60 per pound. 

The sponge fisheries of Crete are important, but the island has neither a 
local market nor native fishermen. The spongers are all Greeks from the Grecian 
and Turkish islands, who arrive on the grounds in the spring and in the fall return 
to their native places with their catch. From 150 to 200 vessels and boats, 
manned by from 800 to 1 ,000 men, engage in the fishery, which produces an annual 
product valued at about $160,000 to $200,000. This revenue is included in that 
before given for the Grecian and Turkish isles. The fishery is carried on by har- 
poons, naked divers, and dredges, the first paying an annual license fee of $18 
and the last two $46 for each boat. The revenue of the government is from 
$4,000 to $5,000 per year. The use of the scaphander is now prohibited, mainly 
for humanitarian reasons, but also on account of the depletion of the beds, 
which were formerly much more productive. 



480 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

THE LEVANT. 

In this region the sponge beds surround the island of Cyprus and skirt the 
Syrian coast from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the vicinity of Latakia and from 
Jaffa to the Suez Canal. It is stated that about May, 1907, a new bed was dis- 
covered, stretching off Port Said toward the north and northeast for a distance of 
about 50 miles. 

The same methods are followed as in the iEgean, and a very large proportion 
of the spongers come from that region. The scaphander was recently pro- 
hibited both at Cyprus and on the Syrian coast, though it is reported that several 
diving boats have been quite recently at work in the latter locality despite the 
prohibition. Cyprus has lately rescinded the prohibition of the diving machine, 
but the regulation excluding the gangava or dredge is still in force. 

The American consul at Beirut estimated in 1902 that the annual export of 
Syrian sponges for several years preceding had averaged about $85,000 in value 
and that the product was gradually decreasing, owing to the depletion of the 
beds. According to Simmonds, the average yield about thirty years ago was 
from $100,000 to $125,000 per annum. From Cyprus the exports were valued 
at $10,425 in 1898 and $28,835 i n !899> but it would appear that this may not 
represent the entire product of the island. The principal markets are Tripoli 
in Syria and Latakia. The sponges produced in both Cyprus and Syria are the 
very finest quality of cup and toilet sponges, although it is said that those on 
the south side of Cyprus are inferior. The very finest are sold by the piece and 
may bring $50 to $100 per pound, but the usual price is between $15 and $35 for 
the fine levants. 

EGYPT. 

The sponge beds off the Egyptian coast extend from the vicinity of Alex- 
andria to the Tripolitan frontier, and are practically continuous with the sponge 
grounds which reach along the Tripolitan coast to and beyond Benghazi. The 
sponges, especially those of Mandruka, are of excellent quality, but on the 
whole are not equal to those of the iEgean and the Syrian coast. The spongers 
are principally Greeks from the Archipelago, who were colonized at Marsa 
Matruh by the Egyptian government in 1902. The fishery appears to be pros- 
perous and is carried on without the use of the scaphander, which apparatus 
has been interdicted for hygienic and humanitarian reasons, vessels using it 
being subject to confiscation. The dredge is restricted to depths greater than 
80 meters (262 feet), and is subject to an annual license impost of $50 per boat, 
the tax for harpooning and naked diving being $25 per boat. There has recently 
developed some difficulty in the enforcement of the regulations, owing appar- 
ently to the beds being be3^ond territorial jurisdiction and the spongers beyond 
the authority of the Egyptian government. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 48 1 

TRIPOLI. 

The sponge beds of Tripoli extend between the Gulf of Bomba and the region 
about Benghazi and from Misrata to the frontier of Tunis. In the western 
region some of the banks are as much as 20 miles from shore and produce a 
better quality of sponge than in the waters nearer the coast. 

Most of the fishery is carried on during the warmer season from April to 
October, but a few of the more hardy crews of divers work at other times. The 
fisheries on the banks between Tunis and Misrata, which are known especially as 
the "Tripoli grounds," from Tripoli-in-Barbary, their headquarters and market 
place, appear to have been exploited first about 1889. In 1890 they produced a 
value of $58,398, and their average annual product during the next nine or ten 
years was valued at about $165,000 per annum. The exports in 1904 were 
$337>75o; in 1905, $226,196; in 1906, 232,565; in 1907, $213,300, and in 1908 
were estimated at $175,800. In 1898 there were engaged in this fishery 53 sca- 
phander vessels with crews of 963 men, and 25 dredges with 150 men. The 
former are mostly Greek, but there are a number of vessels flying the Turkish 
flag and manned by Greeks from the Sporades. The trawlers, or dredgers, are 
principally Italian. During the active fishery the Greek Government main- 
tains at Tripoli a shore hospital and a hospital ship, to care for the divers and 
sailors meeting with accident or injured by the reckless use of the diving ap- 
paratus. Four methods of fishing are practiced; naked diving, harpooning or 
hooking, dredging, and diving with the scaphander. The latter method pre- 
dominates, and of late years harpooning and dredging are said to be falling into 
disuse. The fishery appears to have reached its maximum development, despite 
efforts that have been made for its increase. The Turkish Government imposes 
a license tax upon the vessels, graduated from $i47per annum for scaphanders 
to $18 for boats employed in harpooning. Boats engaged in naked diving are 
taxed about $45 each, and trawlers pay about $13 if measuring 5 tons or under 
and $26 if above 5 tons. 

The sponges from these grounds are darker in color and inferior to those 
from the iEJgean Sea and the Levant. The first quality of bath sponges, which 
comes from the rocky bottoms, formerly brought from $1.50 to $1.90 per pound 
and the second quality, from the grassy bottoms of the channels, from $1.15 to 
$1 .50 per pound. Recently prices appear to have appreciated, the American con- 
sul at Tripoli in Barbary stating in 1 908 that sponges from rocky bottom sold for 
$2.73 to $3.64 per pound, those from shingle bottom for $2.05 to $3.07, and those 
from grassy areas for $1.91 to $2.39. He states further that an average catch 
for a machine boat with 12 to 14 divers is $6,000 to $7,000 a season, and that a 
boat with 4 or 5 naked divers will average about $1 ,200. About one-fourth of the 
product is marketed in Tripoli, the remainder being carried home by the foreign 
fishermen and mixed with inferior or medium grades coming from other localities. 

B. B, F. 1908 — 31 



482 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



The sponges from the Bay of Bomba and neighboring parts of the Tripolitan 
coast, which are generally known in the markets as Benghazi sponges, are 
much superior to those above described and will sell for from two to four times 
the price of Tripoli goods. In 1908 bath sponges sold for $6.20 per pound, 
toilet sponges for $8.22, and cup sponges for $13.65. The bath or honeycomb 
sponge of Benghazi is hardly inferior to that of Mandruka and most of the 
better ones are sold as such. The annual product of this region is about $75,000 
to $90,000. 

All types of Mediterranean sponges are found on the coast of Tripoli, but 
zimoccas and honeycombs are more common, especially on the Tripoli grounds. 

TUNIS. 

The Tunisian sponge beds lie between Bibau and Sarsis near the Tripolitan 
frontier, about the island of Gherbis, in the Gulf of Gabes, in front of Sfax 
between Mahares and Mehedia, about the Kerkennah Isles, and along the 
coast in front of Monastir and Susa. 

Sponges are taken on these coasts by wading, naked diving, harpooning, 
dredging, and diving with the scaphander. The seasons vary with the method. 
Naked diving and harpooning are carried on in general from October to Jan- 
uary, at the time when the bottoms are cleaned of vegetation and the sponges 
can be plainly seen, but the use of the scaphander and the dredge is physically 
possible throughout the year. 

Wading is practiced by natives only, especially those of Kerkennah and 
Gherbis; the harpoon is employed by natives, Sicilians, Maltese, and Greeks; 
the dredge is used by Sicilians and Greeks, while the latter alone employ the 
scaphander. The Tunisian government has recently interdicted the use of the 
scaphander during November and December and has restricted the number 
of licenses to be issued. In 1904-5 the maximum was 22. 

In 1904 the fishery gave employment to 1,368 vessels and boats, of which 
522 were Italian, 79 Greek, and 767 Tunisian, upon which were employed 1,688 
Italians, 444 Greeks, and 2,299 natives, a total of 4,431 men. Gourret says that 
in 1896, an average year, there were engaged in the fishery 1 ,089 vessels, measur- 
ing 2,371 tons and manned by 3,201 men, in addition to which there were 169 per- 
sons taking sponges afoot (wading). In 1854 there were but 102 boats, and in 
1882, according to Henneque, 572 boats and vessels — Sicilian, Greek, and native. 

Following is a table of the product for various periods since 1854: 



1854--- 
1884-85 
1885-86 

1890 

1892 



Pounds. 


Value. 

$12, 000 




26. 400 
206. 000 
197, 000 

24$, 000 
200. 000 












237, 700 





1894 
1896 

1900 
1904 



Pounds. 


Value. 


254, 000 
222, 000 

211, 200 
234, OOO 




$224. OOO 


434.9oo 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 483 

Judging from the statistics alone, the fishery seems to have been well 
maintained during the past twenty years. 

The sponges of Tunis are inferior to those of Tripoli and average from 10 
to 20 per cent less in price for corresponding kinds. Those taken by the gan- 
gava or dredge bring a lower price than the product of either the harpoon or 
scaphander, probably on account of their miscellaneous character as to both 
size and quality. Many of the native spongers sell their catch in its natural 
or uncleaned condition (peche noire), but the foreign fishermen all clean their 
product (peche blanche) before selling it. 

The Tunisian Government has followed a vacillating policy in regard to 
licenses for the fishery, especially as to the scaphander; but in 1903 the annual 
fees were fixed at $20 for harpoons, $75 for dredges, and $200 for scaphanders. 
For the "peche noire" the tax is $8 per boat, all sponges to be landed and 
sold in the uncured state. 

Sfax and Gherbis are the principal markets, whence a large part of the 
product is shipped to Marseilles. Owing to the imposition of an import duty 
in France there is a growing tendency to ship to London. 

LAMPEDUSA AND THE SICILIAN SEA. 

The sponge fishery in these waters is carried on from March until about 
the middle of November, principally on the banks stretching south and south- 
west from Lampedusa almost to the coasts of Tripoli and Tunis, but also to some 
extent north of Pantellaria and off the west coast of Sicily. The fishery is 
almost solely in the hands of Italians and Greeks, although a few Turkish 
and Tripolitan vessels are occasionally engaged in it. In 1904 there were 63 
Italian vessels of 1,302 tons carrying 309 men and 37 Greek vessels of a total 
tonnage of 716 and carrying 406 men. The vessels range between 10 and 40 
tons. 

Three methods are employed in the fishery — harpooning or hooking, dredg- 
ing, and diving with the scaphander. The native fishermen use the first two 
methods solely, while about half of the Greeks employ the diving dress. The 
Italian fishermen are practically all Sicilians, though a few come from Naples. 

In 1 904 the product was about 81,000 pounds, valued at $123,000, as com- 
pared with 98,000 pounds, valued at $150,000, in 1903 and 68,000 pounds, valued 
at $85,000, in 1902. Both the product and the number of persons engaged in 
the fishery have decreased since 1899. 

The Italian spongers sell most of their catch at Lampedusa, whence it is 
shipped to Palermo, Leghorn, Milan, Ancona, Venice, Trieste, Paris, Marseilles, 
and Barcelona. Those taken by the Greek divers are carried to Piraeus, where 
those of the best grade, which come from the bank of Mezogiorno, bring about 
20 per cent more than in Lampedusa. In 1 904 the sponges taken with the gan- 



484 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

gava brought about $1.80, and those caught by the divers from $1.80 to $2.90 
per pound, the product of the scaphander being superior in quality as well as 
larger. 

The sponges taken on the banks of Lampedusa and the -Sicilian Sea are 
Turkey cup and toilet, elephant ear, zimocca, and honeycomb. They vary 
in quality on the different beds. 

ALGERIA AND MOROCCO. 

There are sponges on the coast of Algeria, but beds extensive and rich 
enough to warrant a fishery are unknown. The elephant ear was recorded from 
Bona many years ago, and a toilet sponge similar to that of the Adriatic has 
been found at FaCalle, Philippeville, and other places on the coast. Within 
a few years the Spaniards have explored the coast of Morocco and have found 
beds capable of commercial development. 

METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 

The methods followed in fishing for sponges in the Mediterranean, though 
differing somewhat in details, are essentially the same as those employed on the 
coast of Florida, with the addition of nude diving (which though occasionally 
practiced on the American coasts has never been of any importance commer- 
cially) and dredging. 

Wading. — This was probably the primitive method of sponging in the 
Mediterranean, as it was in Florida, but with the extermination of the sponges 
in shoal water it has long disappeared as a factor in the fishery, excepting on the 
coast of Tunis. The natives of Gherbis and the Kerkennahs take a few sponges 
in this manner, wading in the water to their necks when the sea is smooth, 
detaching them with their toes and kicking them within reach of the hands, and 
occasionally diving into the holes where the water is slightly deeper. The 
sponges taken by this method are inferior. 

Nude diving. — This is another ancient method and a logical sequence of the 
preceding. It is practiced principally by the Greeks of the Archipelago, the 
Syrians, and natives of the Tripolitan and Tunisian littorals. It is said that the 
most skilled naked or "common" divers are from the islands of Calymnos and 
Symi, and that some of them can descend to the enormous depth of 240 to 250 
feet. If this be true it is far in excess of the depths reached by ordinary divers, 
which usually do not exceed 150 feet. They ordinarily remain under water 
about two minutes, resting about thirty minutes between dives, but experts 
sometimes stay down four minutes, and it is stated on good authority that two 
extraordinary divers of Calymnos remained under water over five minutes, 
though the depth is not stated. 

To aid their descent the divers hold in their hands a flat stone (scandli) 
attached to a cord, the other end of which is held by a man in the boat. When 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 485 

the bottom is reached the stone is dropped, the diver retaining hold of the cord 
to prevent floating, while he gathers the sponges within reach, which are depos- 
ited in a net bag attached to his waist. His desire to come up is signaled by 
jerking on the cord. 

The nude divers are not attacked by the serious maladies to which the 
machine divers are subject, and despite the arduousness of their calling are able 
to follow it for years, but owing to the brevity of their stay beneath the water 
and the length of the intervening rests their actual working time is short. 

This method of sponging is followed to best advantage on uneven bottom 
too rough for the dredge, where the sponges are in crevices or under overhanging 
ledges which make them invisible to the harpooners or where the rocks are so 
sharp as to make the use of the scaphander dangerous, owing to the liability of 
injury to the suit and hose. Most of the finest "cave" sponges of the .Fgean 
are taken by this means. 

Nude diving is carried on from small boats, the crews of which are gener- 
ally paid wages, while the diver works on shares. On the African coast this 
fishery is carried on during the fall and early winter, when the bottom is com- 
paratively free from marine vegetation, but in the iEgean and the Levant it is 
conducted during the warmer months of the year. 

Harpooning. — This, historically the third method of sponging, has been 
used in the Mediterranean for many years and is still employed on practically 
all of the sponging grounds where the water is not too deep. It is practically the 
same in its general features as the hooking on the Florida coast, and the condi- 
tions of wind and weather necessary for its success are the same. The instru- 
ment employed is essentially a trident, though it may have other than three 
barbed points or tines. The Tunisian fouchga has two barbed points, the 
Sicilian fuscina, fuscia, or fiocino has three points, the Greek kamaki has four, 
while the Dalmatians use a five-pointed instrument. These all differ from the 
hooks of Florida and the Bahamas in having the tines straight instead of 
recurved. 

The water telescope, practically similar to that used in Florida and the 
Bahamas, is now generally employed in all parts of the Mediterranean, but it 
was not used on the African coast until introduced by the Greeks about 1875. 

The boats employed are various, each nationality having its preference, 
those of the Sicilians resembling New England dories; but they are all small, 
and are manned by two or sometimes three men, one of whom is the harpooner. 
The boats used by the Greek harpooners are similar in shape to the diving boats 
elsewhere described. The harpooner stands in a small circular hatch forward 
and, with a cushion placed beneath his chest, leans over the bow to scan the 
bottom through his water glass. The nomadic Greeks and Sicilians use large 
living and deposit boats, while the native spongers of the various regions have 



486 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

smaller, less seaworthy vessels, or dispense with them entirely when working 
near home. The working boats, corresponding to the dingeys of the Florida 
coast, are propelled usually by one, occasionally by two, pairs of oars, and are 
not sculled with a single oar as in our own waters. When a sponge is sighted 
the harpoon is driven into it, preferably on the side near the root, and it is 
detached by a double motion of rotation and rocking. 

This fishery is practicable in deeper waters than those in which hooking is 
carried on in Florida. Depths of even 70 to 80 feet are reached, and off Ben- 
ghazi sponges are harpooned in as much as 90 feet. In fishing in such deep 
water three persons are assigned to a boat, the third usually a boy handing 
the harpoons to the harpooner and assisting in attaching and detaching the 
additional shafts. 

The poles are about 20 feet long, and to the top of each is lashed a short 
stick, about 6 or 8 inches long, the end of the pole being slightly cut away to 
create a space between it and the stick. Into this gap the end of the next har- 
poon is thrust and held in place by a ring, just above the iron, which is slipped 
over the stick. A third, or as many harpoons as are necessary, are added to 
reach the desired depth. After the sponge is impaled and torn loose from the 
bottom the poles are successively detached as they are brought up. The sponges 
are less firmly attached to the bottom than are those of Florida. 

Owing to the rents likely to be made by the harpoon, the finer grades of 
sponges are less valuable when taken by this method than when procured by 
diving, and are known in the markets as "harpoonees," as distinguished from 
"plongees." On the Tunisian coast there appears to be but little difference 
between the two in price. In Dalmatia tongs are employed, one leg of which 
is attached to a pole and the other operated by a cord. 

Dredging or trawling. — The dredge or trawl (Greek gangava, Italian gagova 
or cava, French drague), shown in text figures 2 to 4, is of special type and large 
size, and has been used for many years by Greeks in the Levant and by Greeks, 
Sicilians, Neapolitans, and Maltese on the coasts of Africa and the banks of 
Lampedusa. It consists, essentially, of a rectangular frame from 15 to 40 feet 
long and from 20 to 30 inches high, to which is attached a bag about 6 to 10 
feet deep, made of large-mesh webbing of light rope (fig. 2, p. 487). 

That part of the frame which scrapes the bottom is a round iron bar about 
2]/^ to 3 inches in diameter, the ends being bent at right angles for a distance 
equal to the desired height of the frame and connected by a stout wooden bar 
to form the top. Frequently the ends of the frame are short wooden bars 
fitted into sockets in the upturned ends of the iron bar (fig. 3, p. 488) . 

In the larger frames the parallel iron and wooden bars forming the bottom 
and the top of the frame, respectively, are connected and stiffened by one or two 
transverse struts (fig. 4, p. 488) , but in the smaller dredges these are omitted. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 



487 



The bridle is composed of a rope running from the middle of the wooden top 
bar and two, three, or four chains connected near the ends and at one or two 
intermediate places on the bottom bar, all being united in an eye or ring to 
which the towrope is attached. The several parts of the bridle are of such 
comparative length that the frame stands upright when towing. The net bag 
is laced to the wooden top bar and to rings welded to the iron part of the 
frame. The tow rope or cable varies in length from 300 to 600 feet, and 
passing through a chuck or snatch block near the bow is led aft to a hand wind- 




Fig. 2. — Dredge, or gangava, used in Mediterranean sponge fisheries. 

lass. A guy line bent to the cable with a rolling hitch at some distance from the 
vessel is led directly to a cleat or bit near the stern, and is used in controlling 
the drift of the vessel. A similar line is carried under the jibboom and attached 
to the opposite side, to be used when the vessel comes about. 

The method of using the dredge is essentially as follows : By means of mast- 
head tackles or davit tackles attached to the wooden bar of the frame it is lowered 
bag first until the frame reaches the level of the rail. The towline is then 
bent to the bridle cringle and carried through a snatch block forward. The 
tackles are cast loose and the net lowered by slowly paying out the tow line 



488 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 




until the bottom is reached, when paying out ceases for a moment to allow the 
bag to straighten out without fouling the frame or bridles. The weight of 
the chains and the lower part of the frame and the buoyancy of the wooden 
upper bar makes it easy to land the apparatus right side up. The towline is 
then paid out with a scope commensurate with the strength of the wind, less 
being required in light and more in strong breezes, and the guy lines are bent 

on at such distance from the ship as to give proper 
facility in handling. 

The apparatus is always paid out on the wind- 
ward side, the vessel drifting to leeward with com- 
paratively slight headway, so as to drag the dredge 
at a speed of about one mile per hour. The guy line 
is used to govern the boat's position with respect to 
the dredge and the wind so as to secure the proper 
direction and speed of drift. Slacking the line puts 
the boat closer to the wind, decreasing both speed 
and headway, while hauling it in puts her off the 
wind, thereby increasing both headway and drift. 
Should the direction of drift carry the dredge off 
FlGi3 ._ Sect i 0n0 fdredge.frameshow- the edge of the sponge bed, the weather guy line is 
in g bend of iron bar at ends. s l ac ked, the vessel comes into the wind, the lee guy 

is hauled in, the towline is passed under the bowsprit and made fast on the other 
bow, while the vessel pays off on the opposite tack across the bed. 

When the dredge is full, the fact is indicated by the heavy drag of the appa- 
ratus. The headsails are then lowered and the guy line is paid out until the 
vessel is head to the wind. The towline is passed to a snatch block forward 
and is hove in until the bridles come home to the block. Two rather long flying 
bridle lines, not shown in the 
drawing, are then hooked to 
masthead tackles, or usually 
to a pair of davits, and are 
hove in by small hand wind- 
lasses until the iron bar is 
brought level with the rail, 

Fig. 4. — Transverse struts sometimes used between bars of dredge frame. 

where it is secured by a couple 

of chain stops. The contents of the bag are then overhauled, the rubbish thrown 
overboard , and the sponges on deck. Three men can handle the vessel and dredge, 
but as the work is carried on day and night the crew generally consists of 5 or 6. 
This apparatus can be employed on smooth bottom only, as the frame is liable 
to foul and the net to be torn on rough rocks, but it can be used at all seasons 
of the year and in all ordinary weather. It is much complained of for its destruc- 




THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 489 

tiveness, the charge being made, apparently with justice, that it tears loose or 
crushes all sponges in its path, both large and small, and that not only is a con- 
siderable portion of the catch inferior on account of the small size, but that many 
sponges are torn loose and not brought up at all, being left to die on the bottom 
or to become rollers. In some localities the gangava is prohibited in depths less 
than a prescribed minimum. In Egypt the limit is fixed at 80 meters (262 feet), 
and in Cyprus the instrument is entirely prohibited. It is used principally on 
the African coast and on the banks of Eampedusa. 

There are probably between 400 and 500 dredges or gangavas employed in 
the sponge fisheries of the Mediterranean, of which the great majority come from 
the Sporades and Cyclades. 

Machine diving. — This method of diving and the apparatus employed is 
sufficiently described -in that part of this paper treating of the Florida fisheries. 
The scaphander was introduced into the iEgean and the Levant about 1866, 
and at once came into such general use among the Greeks that ten years later 
about no machines were in active service. In 1907 it was reported that there 
were from 100 to 120 diving machines for sponge fishing owned in Greece alone. 
In 1903 there were .ig$& diving outfits employed in sponging under the Greek 
flag, the reduction in 1907 being probably due, at least in part, to the export of 
apparatus to the United States for use in Florida. 

From the time of its introduction the diving dress has met with active and 
sometimes violent opposition from the spongers using the older methods, who 
charged it with being destructive to the sponge beds. Recently it has been 
opposed on hygienic grounds, and, mainly through the efforts of Mr. Charles Flegel, 
since 1892 its use has been prohibited in Austria-Hungary, Egypt, Crete, and 
Samos. Turkey also passed prohibitive laws, but they were not enforced and 
have been repealed, and the interdiction formerly existing in Cyprus has been 
removed. Italy and Greece have placed restrictions on the depth to which the 
divers may go, and both have vessels to enforce the law, which, however, is 
more or less generally ignored. The Greek regulations prohibit all diving at 
greater depths than 127 feet, and at least until recently regulated the period for 
which the diver could remain submerged at various depths. During the 
sponging season the Greek Government maintains a hospital and hospital ship 
on the African coast to provide medical attention and succor to the divers. 

Some divers are injured or killed by accidents to the diving dress or hose, 
but the chief danger to which they are exposed is caisson disease, which is a 
frequent consequence of working in depths of over 60 feet. This malady is 
caused by the absorption of gases from the compressed air and their release as 
bubbles in the blood vessels and tissues upon decompression, especially if the 
latter be rapid, as in the quick ascent of a diver from the bottom. In caisson 



490 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

work rapid decompression is guarded against by gradual transition from higher 
to lower compressions in the air locks, or in carefully regulated diving with 
the scaphander by slow ascents, but in sponge diving these precautions are 
ignored, with the result that many of the divers become paralyzed and a consider- 
able number of them are killed. Flegel states that the average yearly mortality 
among the Mediterranean divers reaches the almost incredible proportion of 
nearly 20 per cent, and the cases of more or less serious illness about 25 per 
cent. He states, further, that during thirty-nine years upward of 5,100 sponge 
divers were killed by their work and 2 , 100 were so paralyzed as to be incapacitated. 

That the results of sponge diving are so serious is not surprising in view of 
the practices obtaining. I am informed by various authorities that the machine 
divers in the Mediterranean go to a depth of 250 feet, remaining on the bottom 
three or four minutes at each descent. Boats working in these depths carry 1 2 
or 13 divers, each of whom has a rest of about two hours between plunges. 
Though the pressures are so great that the heavy woolen stockings worn by the 
divers are pressed deeply into the flesh, no measures are taken to ascend gradually, 
the claim being made that the more quickly the person is removed the less the 
liability to injury. Sponge divers have informed me that serious cases of " bends " 
occur more frequently in depths less than 25 fathoms than in those greater, 
owing to the shorter time to which the diver is subjected to the pressure in the 
latter case. 

On the other hand the highest scientific authorities on diving place the safe 
limit for physically sound men at 1 50 feet, and they all prescribe a slow ascent 
and a gradual release from pressure as an essential element of safety. In 
caisson operations, where the conditions under which the men are working are 
essentially the same as those in a diving dress, the compulsory use of air locks 
for gradually reducing the pressure on workers making the exit has been found 
absolutely necessary to preserve the health of the workmen. It appears that 
the incentive to deep diving is imposed largely by the financial conditions under 
which the fishery is conducted. The masters of the vessels, having little capital, 
are obliged to borrow at rates as high as 25 per cent, and feel obliged to force 
their divers in order to make "their ventures pay. 

In many parts of the Mediterranean the sponges grow on bottoms covered 
with vegetation, the location being often indicated by a mere hiatus in the 
tops of the growth. In working on such bottom the diver lies almost hori- 
zontally above the vegetation, looking for the telltale spots and locating the 
sponges by feeling with his hands. 

About the islands of the iEgean many sponges are attached to the faces of 
submarine cliffs 50 or 60 feet high, and to reach them the diver floats himself by 
regulating the air pressure in his suit and propels himself from place to place by 
a swimming motion of the hands. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 49 1 

The scaphander fishery is mainly in the hands of Greeks from both the 
Grecian and Turkish islands, and there were recently between 250 and 300 diving 
outfits in use in the sponge fisheries of the Mediterranean. ^^- 

Cleaning and curing. — The native fishermen of Tunis sell their product in 
the natural state, but all of the other spongers of the Mediterranean cure their 
catch before selling it. The process of curing is essentially that followed by the 
Greek divers in Florida which has already been described. The sponges sold by 
weight are loaded with sand, marble dust, and other materials. They are packed 
under foot in cylindrical bales weighing from 40 to 75 pounds, or in boxes. A con- 
siderable proportion of the Mediterranean sponges are bleached before entering 
the final markets, the process being essentially that employed in the United 
States and elsewhere described. 

VII. VARIOUS MINOR LOCALITIES. 

Sponges of some economic value are found at various places which have not 
yet developed fisheries of commercial importance. In other localities sponges 
closely allied to economic species or zoologically identical with them have been 
recorded by naturalists, though but little is known of their abundance, access- 
ibility, and characteristics as measured by commercial standards. Certain of 
these places geographically adjacent to the important sponge fisheries of North 
American and the Mediterranean have been discussed, but the isolated localities 
can be considered most conveniently in a separate chapter. Certain of them are 
quite likely to develop, eventually, fisheries of more or less importance, especially 
with the growth of a demand for sponges incident to the extension of modern 
civilization and manufactures. 

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

When this archipelago has been more thoroughly explored and its marine 
resources are more generally known it is probable that it will support a sponge 
fishery of some importance. The recent work of the Bureau of Fisheries 
steamer Albatross, not yet concluded, has brought to light several sponges of 
commercial utility, though of rather poor quality. 

The Tawi-tawi group appears to be particularly rich in horny sponges, 
some of which are of value commercially, and the Albatross obtained specimens 
at Siminor, Tataan, and other localities. Small grass sponges were found in 
extraordinary abundance on the tide flats of Tataan Island, attached to the 
coralline and shelly bottom in a depth of 1 to 1 % feet at low water. Several 
other kinds of possible value are reported from the same locality. 

Similar sponges are found at Siassi in the Tapul group and several Americans 
have recently gone into the business of gathering them for the market. Inex- 
perience in curing and packing lessened the value of the product, but it is under- 



492 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

stood that instructions given by the Albatross party have resulted in improve- 
ment in this respect. 

About the island of Sitanki or Sibutu there are considerable beds of 

sponges resembling somewhat the toilet sponge of the Mediterranean, though 
with the upper surface more fibrous and with numerous closely ranged pores. 
The sponge is very soft, but much weaker in fiber than its Mediterranean con- 
gener. Thirty or forty thousand of these have been marketed in Singapore 
and shipped to New York and London, where they brought a low price. 

On the south side of Jolo the Albatross obtained a single beach-worn speci- 
men closely resembling the reef sponge of North American waters. From the 
north side of the same island there was collected, in a depth of 20 fathoms, a 
specimen resembling the elephant-ear sponge, very strong but harsh and rather 
incompressible. The texture is closer and more dense than in the Mediter- 
ranean sponge and the primary fibers of the skeleton are so heavily laden with 
sand granules as to render it of but little commercial value. It is possible 
that superior qualities may be found in other localities. The specimen collected 
is about 15 inches in diameter, almost flat, with several flaps or lamellae on the 
upper surface, and was attached by a short stalk or peduncle. 

Small sponges said to resemble the Key grass of Florida are sold in the 
shops of Cebu and are reported to come from nearby reefs. Others of excellent 
quality resembling wool and yellow sponges are sold in native shops in various 
places but are believed to be imported. I have been shown a specimen, said to 
be indigenous, which very closely resembled the Bahama sheepswool. It had 
apparently been in use for bath purposes and I am convinced that it was exotic. 
Another specimen from an unknown locality was of excellent shape and quality, 
somewhat resembling the honeycomb sponge of the Mediterranean but differing 
from it sufficiently to remove suspicion that it was not' of native origin. It was 
soft, strong, firm, and elastic, rather flat and attached by a narrow base. If it 
can be obtained in quantities, it should prove of considerable commercial value. 

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. 

The sponge fauna of Australia is exceedingly rich, and according to 
Lendenfeld the zoological species which include the elephant ear, honeycomb, 
zimocca, glove, and reef sponges are found on its coasts, in addition to several 
others which he regards as of possible commercial value. The rather poor 
specimens of Australian sponges which I have examined, comprising 10 or 15 
species of supposed commercial value, were nearly all of inferior quality, open 
in texture, irregular, hard, and harsh. The specimens had the appearance of 
being beach worn, and the defects of some of them were due in part to imperfect 
curing. One or two kinds could probabfy find a limited market at a low price. 
Attempts have recently been made to find a market for these sponges with a 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 493 

view to establishing a fishery, but it is understood that the results have not been 

encouraging. Honeycomb and reef sponges are reported to occur in New 

Zealand. 

OTHER PACIFIC OCEAN LOCALITIES. 

The horny sponges of the Pacific islands are known practically from the 
Challenger collections only, those of the various expeditions of the Albatross 
not having been studied. 

In the Sandwich Islands there occurs a sponge which somewhat resembles 
the sheepswool in appearance, but the single specimen upon which the report 
is based was hard, very weak of texture, and of little, if any, commercial value. 
A reef sponge from the Fiji. Islands and a grass sponge from the Gilberts, both 
of doubtful value, practically complete the record for this region, although 
the Carolines are stated to produce a soft, fine sponge, probably not unlike the 
Sitanki sponges of the Philippines. 

INDIAN OCEAN. 

I have recently received inquiries in regard to a toilet sponge from the 
coast of Madagascar. It is stated to "look like the Mandruka toilet sponge," 
but to have a -poor texture and to be lacking in durability. This is possibly 
the sponge which Cotte says is taken at the southern end of the island about 
Cape St. Marie. The American consul at Tamatave in response to inquiries 
reports that sponges occur on the west of the island from Cape St. Marie to 
Ambohibe, a distance of 340 miles. About 1902 5 Greek divers were employed 
by 2 merchants and in 1907 some Ceylonese were employed by another con- 
cessionaire, but both experiments proved failures and excepting a few sponges 
taken by natives there is at present no fishery. The price received by native 
fishermen is about $1.15 per hundred pieces, the sponges being very badly 
cured. None were exported in 1908. 

Lendenfeld records several varieties of the common toilet sponge, the 
velvet, and several other species of horny sponges from Mauritius, but nothing 
is known of their economic value. 

Sponges also occur in the Seychelles, and the government of those islands 
has recently taken steps to determine their commercial value. 

In Ceylon a variety of the toilet sponge is found in abundance, and Hornell 
believes it to be of commercial value. Euspongia irregularis pertusa, which 
includes the yellow sponge of the Gulf of Mexico, is also recorded from the 
island, but nothing is known as to its commercial characteristics and value. 

MID-ATLANTIC OCEAN. 

Weil states that there are beds of excellent sponges lying in deep water 
about the Cape Verde Islands and the Azores, and that in quality and general 
characteristics they are intermediate between those of the Mediterranean and 



494 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

western Atlantic. He believes that in those places a profitable fishery merely 
awaits the time when the exhaustion of the older fisheries will force their 
exploitation. 

I have been informed by a Greek of wide experience on both sides of the 
Atlantic that in the shallow waters about the Canary Islands there is a sponge 
closely resembling the coarser qualities of the yellow sponge, though the shape 
is flatter. 

Several sponges are reported from the Madeiras and the Bermudas, those 
of the latter islands resembling those of the North American coast and including 
the grass, sheepswool, and possibly the velvet. The velvet sponge is also 
recorded from Fernando de Noronha, off the Brazilian coast, indicating the 
probable extension of the American commercial sponges along the mainland 
south of the equator. 

VIII. CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS OF THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 
DEPLETION OF THE BEDS. 

Wherever the sponge fisheries have been prosecuted with vigor for a long 
period, there has resulted a more or less definite depletion of the beds, or a well- 
grounded fear of the approach of that condition. The commercial sponges can 
never be actually exterminated by the agency of man. It is an impossibility 
to denude the grounds so completely as to leave none for reproduction, and, 
moreover, as soon as the beds become so depleted as to reduce the earnings of 
the spongers to a bare living wage, the economic result is a reduction in the number 
of fishers and the establishment of an approximate equilibrium between pro- 
ductiveness and catch. The point at which .this equilibrium is established will 
vary with economic conditions, becoming lower with an increase in the value of 
the product and higher with an increase in the cost of living of the fishermen. 
More men, gathering in the aggregate a somewhat larger quantity of sponges, 
though the catch of each individual may be less, can be supported when the 
price is high than when it is low, and this results in increasing the fishery, in 
a further reduction in the productiveness of the beds, in profits, and eventually 
in the number of fishermen, the equilibrium being again established on a some- 
what lower plane of productiveness. Thus, while the sponges are never actually 
exterminated there results an approximate commercial extermination, never 
quite complete for the reason that were the fishery entirely abandoned the beds 
would soon recuperate and again become commercially productive. 

This is well illustrated in a number of cases. In the Adriatic, sponges were 
formerly much more abundant, but the fishery has been nearly stationary for a 
number of years. In the Mgean and on the Syrian coast there is said to have 
been a material decrease during the past thirty years, but the conditions of the 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 495 

fishery are such that it is difficult to obtain statistics which will show the actual 
product of the beds in those waters. 

On the African coast the yield of the beds during the past fifteen or twenty 
years has been fairly maintained, though most writers on the subject have 
expressed the opinion that the productiveness of the beds is waning, and that 
the average size of the sponges is growing smaller. Such statistics as I have 
been able to obtain show a rather remarkable uniformity in the total catch. In 
the fishery tributary to the Benghazi market the only material variation in the 
catch between 1889 and 1895 can be traced to a difference in the intensity of 
the fishery, especially in the number of scaphanders employed. In Tunis during 
the twenty years between 1885 and 1904 the maximum yield has exceeded the 
minimum by about 25 per cent, and the catch of 1904 was greater than for 
any year previously recorded, excepting 1890 and 1894. The average catch of 
three years prior to 1892 was 216,000 pounds and for five years since that date 
224,000 pounds. In this connection it must be noted, however, that between 1890 
and 1892, principally in the latter year, there was a rapid increase in the number of 
fishermen from about 3,000 to about 4,500 with a corresponding increase in the 
number of boats employed. In other words, if the statistics be reliable, an 
increase of 4 per cent in the average yield of the fishery has been produced by 
an increase of about 50 per cent in the number of fishermen. This, possibly, 
may be accounted for to some extent by changes in regulations or methods of 
which I am ignorant, but the facts substantiate the statement that the dealers 
of Sfax and the spongers themselves are of the opinion that the fishery is being 
depleted, as indicated by the smaller catch per man employed and the increasing 
proportion of small sponges. 

The total product of the banks of Lampedusa has decreased materially 
since 1 888-1 899, when the fishery reached a maximum in both yield and inten- 
sity. Considered by five-year periods, the available statistics appear to indicate 
some depletion of the beds during recent years. During five years from 1890 
to 1894, inclusive, the average catch per sponger was about 151 pounds, the 
average of five years from 1895 to 1899, inclusive, was the same, while the average 
of the four years from 1901 to 1904, inclusive, was but 120 pounds, a decrease 
of 20 per cent. Owing to the fluctuating proportions of scaphanders and dredges 
from year to year and other variations in the fishery, it may be that this decrease 
has no great significance, but those familiar with the beds are of the opinion 
that their productiveness has decreased. It is noteworthy also that the smallest 
catches made since 1889 were in the years immediately following the intense 
fisheries between 1895 and 1900, when the largest number of men and boats 
were employed and the beds most thoroughly scoured. In the Mediterranean 
the dredge and the scaphander are both blamed for the depletion of the beds, 
the former because it tears everything from the bottom and the latter because 



496 . BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

of the number of small sponges taken. The harpoon and naked diving are 
regarded as harmless, and it is generally held that the beds could not be seriously 
injured by those methods alone. 

On the western side of the Atlantic the case is different. In Cuba and the 
Bahamas, and until recently in the United States, the diving machine has not 
been used and the dredge is unknown. Hooks, the equivalent of the Mediter- 
ranean harpoon, were the only implements employed, yet the complaints of 
waning productiveness of the sponge grounds are quite as loud and, in some 
cases at least, as well grounded. 

The earlier statistics of the Florida fishery are nearly valueless for the 
determination of the productiveness of the beds. The sponges are bought by 
bunches which vary in weight with the size and character of the sponges and 
the manner in which they are strung, and the only comparative weights or 
quantities which are available are those of the packed goods. Unfortunately 
these weights are not those of the pure sponges but of sponges plus salt, sand, 
glucose, and other materials used in loading. Were this loading uniform the 
statistics would still be of some value for the purpose of the present inquiry, 
but the amount of foreign matter introduced has gradually increased since the 
practice was recommenced, about 1895, after an interval of comparatively honest 
packing, until in 1903-4 I found it to range between 100 and 150 per cent of 
the. true weight of the sponges. At that time, and until the heavy influx of 
sponges from diving operations, practically all sheepswool sponges and some 
of the cheaper grades were heaviiy loaded, and even much of the small quantity 
sold as "pure" was more or less "doped" with salt, glucose, glycerin, and a 
little litharge. Since 1903 the statistical weight of the catch has been based 
upon an assumed approximate average weight of the bunches and the result is 
probably more accurate. 

Considering the total yield of both Bay and Key grounds, the average 
catch of sheepswool sponges between 1895 and 1899, inclusive, was 173,043 
pounds, while between 1900 and 1904, inclusive, it was 186,155 pounds. In the 
latter period, however, there were two years, 1901 and 1903, when clear water 
on certain grounds rarely fished gave the spongers access to practically virgin 
bottom. It should be stated, however, that in the latter part of this term 
the number of men and vessels employed exhibited some decrease. 

In the period from 1905 to 1908, inclusive, there occurred a great increase 
in the production, the average product of sheepswool sponges being 313,697 
pounds. This was due to the introduction of diving. 

Considering the production in its relation to effort expended in the fishery, 
we find that each man engaged in hooking from 1900 to 1904, inclusive, pro- 
duced an average of 100 pounds of sheepswool sponges per year as compared 
with an average of 81 pounds for the years 1905 to 1908, inclusive. The 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 497 

average production per diving boat per month of actual operation, as nearly 
as can be ascertained, has been 385 pounds in 1905, 437 pounds in 1906, 338 
pounds in 1907, and 206 pounds in 1908. The latter part of 1907 and the 
entire spring of 1908 was characterized by boisterous weather, and part of the 
decrease may be due to these conditions. 

So far as we can judge from the statistics, however, and making due allow- 
ance for the uncertainties of the fishery, there appears to have been a consider- 
able decrease in the productiveness of the beds, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, 
since 1900, a statement which is strongly supported by the observations of those 
engaged in the fishery. 

HOOKING AND HARPOONING. 

Hooking and harpooning are essentially the same and are limited by the 
same conditions. They can be carried on only when the weather is moderate 
and the water clear, and as the latter essential may occur on some beds only 
at intervals of several years, as, for instance, on the New grounds off Cape Sable 
and in the deeper water on the Bay grounds, there is imposed on these methods 
of fishery certain natural and irrefrangible close seasons which operate to effec- 
tually protect certain beds by restraining the fishery for sufficient periods to 
permit of recuperation. In most places, however, clear water is the rule rather 
than the rare exception ; and in such cases hooking, while temporarily inhibited, 
may be carried on for a greater or less part of each year. When this is the case 
the effects on the beds are dependent upon the intensity of the fishery and the 
degree to which the fishers rob the grounds of young sponges. As a rule, wherever 
the beds are sufficiently productive to make it profitable they are worked beyond 
reasonable limits until more or less gradually the yield is reduced below the 
economic minimum and most of the spongers withdraw to other fields, leaving, 
however, enough of their less enterprising fellows to prevent the possibility of 
effective recuperation. This has been the case on the Key grounds of Florida, 
where the fishery continues to produce a small crop, though abandoned as 
unprofitable by most of the vessels and some of the boats. The New grounds, 
where the water is found clear only at intervals of several years, still produce 
sponges under favorable conditions, while several other places — for instance, 
the vicinity of Bamboo Key, which were almost abandoned for a while — have 
again become moderately productive. 

In connection with the hook fishery there are two factors which assist in 
the recuperation of the beds. One is the presence of sponges in adjoining waters 
too deep to be reached with the hooks, and the other is the retention on the beds 
actually fished of sponges which are out of sight from the surface. This is more 
fully discussed in connection with diving. Another factor assisting in the recu- 
peration of the beds reserved to hookers is the regenerative growth of fragments 

B. B. P. 1908—32 



498 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

remaining attached to the bottom after the main portion of the sponge is torn 
loose. It often happens that the hooks are inserted above the base, and more 
or less of the root is left to grow into a new sponge. On overworked beds the 
spongers frequently find apparently large sponges which are so flat that the hooks 
can not be inserted at all, and a bed which has been fished continuously for a 
series of years produces more flat sponges than when first discovered. It is 
probably because the beds are only worked at intervals of several years that the 
New ground sponges have a greater height than those from other Key grounds, 
and the sponges now being taken from the rested Bamboo Key grounds are 
higher than those formerly obtained. It is not at all unlikely that this regener- 
ation of attached "roots" is a more important factor in the rejuvenation of the 
beds than is generally supposed. 

The greatest abuse connected with hooking is the capture of small' sponges, 
though the proportion of those below the legal limit of 4 inches is smaller 
than in the catch of the divers. This abuse is always greater on partially 
depleted grounds, which are less able to stand the drain, than on newer and more 
productive beds. A gradual reduction of the average size of the individual 
sponges taken is always a serious symptom of depletion already accomplished 
and a potent cause of greater depletion to come. 

NUDE DIVING. 

Nude diving is not practiced to any extent in the fisheries of the western 
Atlantic, and though it appears less objectionable than almost any other method 
it is prohibited by the laws of Florida. The natural limitations imposed upon 
this fishery are stringent and are such as to prevent the depletion of most 
beds by this method alone. The sea must be moderate and the water fairly 
clear, while the brevity of the period of submergence and the length of the 
intervening rests, together with the small proportion of men who will develop 
into first-class divers, makes the devastation of the beds by such means a 
remote contingency. Although sponges unattainable by other means can be 
taken by this, the history of the Mediterranean beds leads to the conclusion 
that nude diving is comparatively harmless to the sponge grounds. 

MACHINE DIVING. 

The objections which have been urged against the use of the diving machine 
are resolvable into essentially two: (1) That the divers with their heavy -mailed 
shoes crush innumerable young sponges in walking over the bottom, and (2) 
that they take everything, large and small, leaving the bottom denuded of the 
growth essential for reproduction. 

The first objection appears ridiculous to anyone familiar, either theoretically 
or practically, with the principles of diving. It is true that the diver as he appears 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 499 

on the deck of the vessel is burdened until he is hardly able to walk, partly 
by the essentials of his dress, but largely by weights which he deliberately adds 
for the express purpose of enabling him to keep on the bottom wh.en sub- 
merged. After his descent, when his dress becomes inflated, it is necessary to 
release air from time to time, not only for purposes of respiration, but to 
prevent the buoyancy of his inflated suit from raising him to the surface, and 
should he lose a weight on a shoe he will immediately lose control of himself 
and float. It is one of the well-known restrictions of working in the diving 
dress that while a strong upward pull can be exerted a vigorous lateral push 
can be put forth only when the diver can place his foot or some part of his 
body against a fixed object, while even a moderately effective downward push 
or blow can not be delivered unless the operator can anchor himself by holding 
with his hand or other means. These restrictions in the employment of his 
full strength all result from the lightness with which the diver rests on the 
bottom, the ponderous and grotesque object which can barely stagger on the 
deck of the boat treading gently with but a few pounds pressure as he travels 
over the bottom. As the weight with which the diver actually treads could 
seriously injure none but the very smallest sponges, and as his footprints can 
not possibly cover more than a very small proportion of the ground over which 
he works, this objection to the diving machine can well be totally disregarded. 

The second objection stated above is more serious. It has been claimed 
by some opponents of diving that the diver is unable to distinguish accurately 
the size of the sponges, owing to the optical conditions under which he works, 
while the advocates of the method claim that he is in much better position to do 
so than is the hooker, looking through a deep stratum of water of variable trans- 
parency. There is but little doubt that experienced divers, depending not only 
on eyesight but upon touch, can distinguish with sufficient nicety to avoid flagrant 
breach of the law and common prudence, but so long as undersized sponges 
have a market and infractions of the law are not punished they will not hesitate 
to pluck most of the young sponges which come in their way. Whether they 
do the damage knowingly or unwittingly is of no material moment, however, 
in the face of the fact that the damage is done, and there is no doubt that immense 
numbers of small sponges are brought in by the divers, many of them being 
sold in the exchange at Tarpon Springs, while undoubtedly a much larger num- 
ber are shipped for sale in other markets. The proportion of these sponges to 
the total catch appears to be much larger than among the product of the hookers. 

Another phase of this matter is concerned not so much with the taking of 
the young sponges as with the thoroughness with which the bottom is denuded 
of all sizes. In working over rough bottom especially, the hookers and har- 
pooners always leave a considerable proportion of the sponges, not from choice 
but because they are overlooked, hidden from view from above or inaccessible 



500 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

owing to their situation in crevices or under ledges. These the divers are able 
to find and obtain and in consequence they leave fewer sponges to furnish the 
young necessary for the recuperation of the beds. Where the divers are work- 
ing on grounds already partially depleted by other methods of sponging, as was 
the case during the first two years of the fishery in the Gulf of Mexico and in 
many places in the Mediterranean, there can be no doubt that the method is 
exhausting to the beds, even if it be conducted without the abuse of gathering 
undersized sponges. When the beds are already worked to or beyond their 
limits of productiveness any method which increases the draft upon them must 
be injurious. 

This was one of the contentions of the opponents of diving in Florida and was 
the reason for the restriction of the divers to depths greater than 50 feet. It 
was hoped by this means to preserve the inshore grounds inviolate for the hookers, 
while permitting the taking of sponges in the deeper waters unattainable by the 
methods previously in use. Concerning the productiveness of these offshore 
grounds we are not yet in possession of data which would warrant an opinion of 
value, but the little that we do know does not indicate that they are more pro- 
ductive" mile for mile than were the shoaler waters when first discovered. In 
fact, the bars appear to be fewer and more scattered, and though sponges occur 
on some of them in great numbers, this abundance is due to the fact that they 
are virgin beds and have never before sustained a fishery. There is no doubt 
that in time some, at least, of these will be depleted and the proximity of that 
time will be proportional in some measure to the intensity of the fishery and 
conversely to the area of new grounds developed. 

Assuming that the fishery can be carried on to the 20-fathom curve and that 
the productiveness of this region is proportionately equal to that covered by 
the hookers, an increase of from 250 per cent to 275 per cent in the annual prod- 
uct, making no allowance for the consideration about to be presented, would 
result in approximately the same degree of over-fishing which had gradually 
decreased the catch of the hookers prior to 1905-6. This allowable increase 
was nearly attained in the year ending May 1, 1907, when the value of the 
sheepswool product was over twice the normal of the years immediately pre- 
ceding. Owing to the sudden increase in the supply the price dropped far 
below that of previous years. 

In discussing the effects of the fishery upon the rate of depletion of the inshore 
beds, consideration must be given to the effect upon their recuperative powers 
of the sponges lying in the deeper water, beyond the reach of the hookers but 
now being taken by diving. Undoubtedly a considerable proportion of the 
young sponges on any bed are the offspring of breeding adults in the immediate 
vicinity, either overlooked by the hookers, concealed from sight under ledges, 
or protected from capture by the prevailing turbidity of the water, all factors 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 501 

less operative with the divers; but it is equally beyond doubt that no incon- 
siderable proportion are derived from sponges in deeper water, at a distance 
from the beds on which the young finally settle. 

We have evidence that this must be true in the phenomena of the recupera- 
tion of large areas after the practically complete extermination of the sponges 
from so-called "poison water." This has recurred at irregular intervals about 
ten years apart. In 1878, for instance, practically all sponges accessible to the 
hookers between Johns Pass and Cedar Keys were destroyed and the fishery was 
abandoned for several years, the first sign of recuperation being observed about 
1882. About 1895 a similar occurrence in the northern part of the Bay grounds 
killed the sponges between St. Marks and the mouth of the Suwanee River from 
about the 5 -fathom curve to the greatest depth explored by the hookers, and in 
1 90 1 I was informed that the first sponges taken since then from the depleted 
bed had been obtained recently. 

The evidence all indicates that over the large areas involved few if any 
sponges escaped the disaster, and as the repopulation of the beds was apparent 
practically simultaneously over the whole area and did not appear first merely 
at its edges, it is evident that the young must have been derived from grounds 
more or less remote. The very young sponge is a free-swimming organism which 
is probably often carried far by currents before it reaches the stage at which 
it settles down and becomes fixed. It is evident that the rate or probability of 
recuperation of any exhausted area depends not only on the number of resident 
breeding sponges, but also upon the presence and number of such sponges on 
surrounding areas. An exhausted area adjacent to virgin beds will have a more 
abundant set of young than if the surrounding areas are equally exhausted. In 
the history of the sponge grounds of the Gulf of Mexico prior to 1 905 there were 
always untouched bars offshore just beyond reach of the hooks, and these must 
have supplied untold millions of fry to the workable beds, retarding their com- 
mercial exhaustion. This condition is now changing, for the offshore beds them- 
selves are yielding up their sponges in large numbers, and even if they exist in 
still deeper water than has been explored the virgin beds are becoming more 
and more remote from inshore waters. It would appear, then, though the basis 
of the conclusion is purely a priori, that, in view of the increasing exploitation 
of the deeper beds, the grounds now reserved to the hookers will probably not 
have the same powers of recuperation in the future as in the past, and that with 
the same expenditure of effort in the fishery the product of these beds will tend 
to fall at an increasing rate. The consequence of this will be that the principal 
seat of the sponge fishery will gradually move into deeper and deeper water 
until the limit is reached, either by the depth in which it proves practicable to 
work or by the attainment of the limits of sponge production, which may be 
fixed by either the depth of water or the absence of suitable bottom. 



502 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

The introduction of diving came at a time when the older method of spong- 
ing had finally demonstrated its inadequacy to supply the demand for sponges, 
and by developing new beds it has deferred the time when the Florida sponge 
beds will no longer be able to sustain the demands of the markets. On the other 
hand, it will undoubtedly operate to retard the recuperation of beds already or 
about to become exhausted, and will, of itself, tend to depopulate the beds on 
which it is carried on and, indirectly, the hooking grounds adjacent to such beds. 
From the comparative facility with which it can be conducted, irrespective of 
the condition of the water, the thoroughness with which the bottom can be 
scoured and the reckless disregard of the future with which the divers gather 
small sponges, diving is undoubtedly more dangerous in the denudation of the 
beds than is hooking. The recent legal restriction of the fishery to the deeper 
waters and to the more boisterous season of the year, when many days are lost 
on account of stormy weather, will operate to curtail the catch and the profits 
and restrict the number of persons engaging in it, and to this extent the con- 
servation of the beds will be accomplished. What may be the ultimate result 
of the introduction of the diving machine will depend largely upon the area and 
productiveness of the beds outside of the 8 -fathom curve. If they be four or 
five times as great as those of the beds within that limit, the Bay grounds can 
support a profitable fishery for some years to come, but if they are no greater 
than there is now reason to suppose, the effects of the fishery will become appar- 
ent within the next five years. 

A 

DREDGING OR TRAWLING. 

The dredge or gangava is not used in Florida or the West Indies, but the 
testimony of European authorities and an appreciation of the effects of the 
dredge and beam trawl used by naturalists indicate that without regulation its 
effects must be disastrous. If used in profound depths to take sponges wholly 
beyond the reach of other methods of the fishery it has some justification, but 
even then it would probably retard the recuperation of the adjoining beds in 
more shallow water in the same manner as denudation by the scaphander would 
curtail the supply of young sponges on still shallower beds. 

There can be no doubt that the gangava is a destructive engine. With it 
there can be not even such imperfect selection as is exercised by the hooker and 
the diver, and the proportion of young sponges brought up is correspondingly 
greater. On the banks of Lampedusa, where the gangava and the scaphander 
work practically side by side, it is stated on the authority of Lucifero that the 
refuse sponges brought up by the former constitute 25 per cent of the total catch, 
while but 6 per cent of the diver's catch is composed of refuse, small, and 
seconds. It is stated, also, by the same authority, that owing to the damage 
done to small sponges it requires five years for banks to recover from the effects 
of dredging, and even then the crop is limited, while two years suffices for the 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 503 

recuperation of beds exhausted by diving, and the crop then produced is com- 
paratively abundant. While the hardships and personal risks of the dredgers 
are negligible as compared with those attending diving, the effects on the beds 
are far more disastrous. 

Owing to the comparatively small expense for equipment and operation, 
and the fact that dredging can be carried on in all depths and in weather which 
would inhibit other methods of fishing, it is possible by this means to conduct a 
fishery of great intensity and to exploit grounds so depleted as to be unprofitable 
for diving. It is by no means certain that the offshore grounds of Florida are 
not too rough for the gangava, but to prevent the introduction of this method 
of fishing in shallow water and to forestall the establishment of a "vested 
interest" which might be difficult to deal with in the future, it is desirable that 
legislation be passed restricting the use of the dredge to depths far beyond those 
which it is possible to exploit by other means. £f 

IX. THE REGULATION AND PROTECTION OF THE SPONGE FISHERIES, 
WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO FLORIDA. 

MEASURES IN FORCE. 

Until recently the regulation of the sponge fisheries of the Mediterranean 
has been, with few exceptions, concerned chiefly with the production of a 
revenue for the governments concerned, but during the past fifteen years, owing 
chiefly to the efforts of Mr. Charles Flegel, another element has been introduced, 
the protection of the spongers themselves from the physical effects of their 
calling. 

It is true that in a few places measures are in force which tend to protect 
and conserve the sponge beds. In Dalmatia recent attempts to introduce the 
scaphander and the dredge have met with opposition and interdiction, and the 
sponge banks are opened to the other spongers only during alternating periods 
of two years. A somewhat similar regulation is proposed for the Bay of Taranto. 
In Cyprus the dredge is entirely prohibited, and in Egypt its use is authorized 
only in depths greater than 262 feet, where it is impossible to take sponges by 
any other means. In Greece, Tripoli, Tunis, and on the banks of Lampedusa 
all forms of apparatus are permitted under varying conditions as to taxes and 
licenses ; but in Turkey, Egypt, Crete, and the principality of Samos the scaphander 
is prohibited on broad economic and humanitarian grounds rather than for the 
narrower consideration of the protection of the sponge beds, and for the same 
reason Greece has attempted to regulate the maximum depth to which this 
apparatus may be used without restricting in any way its employment in shoaler 
waters, in which it might be supposed to do greater damage to the beds. The 
attitude of the Greeks in this matter is readily understood, for they are dominant 
in the fishery and most of their diving is carried on in waters away from home. 



504 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

In Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba, while the matter of revenue has been 
by no means overlooked, more consideration has been given to questions of 
conservation of the fisheries, the measures adopted being the prohibition or 
restriction of the use of supposedly destructive forms of apparatus, the establish- 
ment of close seasons, and a minimum size of sponges which it is permissible to 
take. 

In the Bahamas, Cuba, and the territorial waters of Florida both the 
scaphander and the dredge are absolutely prohibited, Florida also including in 
the interdiction all methods of diving, either with or without apparatus. In 
Cuba the sponge beds are all in territorial waters, and as the Bahama govern- 
ment without challenge assumes jurisdiction over the entire area of the banks, 
neither of these countries has much difficulty in making the legislation effective. 
In Florida, however, a difficulty confronts those interested in the conservation 
of the industry. 

On the Bay grounds in the Gulf of Mexico practically the entire sponge- 
bearing bottom is outside of territorial jurisdiction, beyond the 3-mile limit, and 
therefore in neutral waters not subject to direct regulation of either state or 
national government. So far as this region is concerned, therefore, the laws of 
Florida are from the nature of the case inoperative, and to obviate the difficulty 
the Congress of the United States has recently enacted laws prohibiting the 
landing of sponges taken by diving between May 1 and October 1 , those taken 
by diving at any time in water less than 50 feet in depth, and all sponges of less 
than 4 inches in their largest diameter taken by whatever means. 

The effect of the federal laws, taken in conjunction with those of the state, is, 
therefore, to prohibit the landing or sale of sponges having a maximum diameter 
of less than 4 inches; to prohibit naked or skin diving and the use of the scap- 
hander by American vessels fishing for the American market in depths less than 
50 feet, and in any depth during the seven months from May 1 to October 1 ; and 
to prohibit the use of dredges on the Bay grounds within 3 miles of shore, where 
there are no sponges, while permitting their use outside of that limit, where the 
sponges actually exist. No legal restriction is imposed on hooking excepting 
that applying to the minimum size of sponges which may be caught, landed, or 
offered for sale. There is no prohibition, nor from the nature of the case does 
such prohibition appear possible, against either American or foreign vessels 
using the scaphander at any time anywhere outside of the 3-mile limit, provided 
that the product of such operations be not landed in an American port except 
by regular entry and payment of duty as a foreign product. 

On the Key grounds these difficulties are not encountered. The waters are 
shoal. The sponge beds are within territorial limits and under state control, 
and the federal statutes therefore do not apply and are not necessary. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 505 

MEASURES PROPOSED. 

The possible measures for the regulation and conservation of the sponge 
fisheries resolve themselves into (1) the prohibition of taking sponges below a 
given minimum size, (2) the establishment of close seasons, (3) the restriction of 
the character, amount, and location of the apparatus employed, and (4) sponge 
culture. As has been previously indicated, the taking of young sponges is one 
of the great abuses of all sponge fisheries, and that one most fatal to the perpetu- 
ation of the beds; and young sponges are taken by all present methods of fishing, 
though to varying degrees. A few of them are thrown away by the fishermen, 
but the vast majority are placed on the market. I have seen 30,000 small 
sheepswool sponges in the house of one dealer at Tarpon Springs, who paid but 
$500 or $600 for the lot, an average of less than 2 cents apiece. This was prob- 
ably the largest quantity bought by any one man at that place, but the other 
dealers also had large numbers, and it is notorious that the divers ship many 
away for sale in other places. It is impossible to state the total number of young 
Florida sponges annually placed on the market, but there must be at least 
between 150,000 to 200,000 pieces. Accepting the lower estimate, these are 
worth to the spongers not over $3,000, but if left to grow for another year they 
would more than double in weight and increase about ten times in value at the 
present prices. Not only is there this direct monetary loss to the fishery, but 
there is an indirect loss to the beds resulting from the unprofitable removal 
of this large number of breeding individuals capable of furnishing fry for the 
regeneration of the sponging grounds. 

The present minimum limit placed on sponges by both the federal and state 
statutes applicable to Florida waters is 4 inches in the longest diameter when 
wet, but most persons do not realize the small size of such sponges. The dealer 
mentioned above was of the belief that all of his 30,000 small sponges were under 
the legal limit, but a careful measurement showed that probably 50 per cent 
of them could be construed as complying with the conditions of law, the largest 
diameter reaching 4 inches, though the other dimensions were usually consider- 
ably less. The average weight of such sponges when pure and perfectly dry is 
less than one-half ounce and they are of little value in the markets. To sell 
most of them at all it is necessary to bleach them and place the price so low 
as to leave little profit. If the law is to be made really effective for the protec- 
tion of the beds and to prevent the taking of economically unremunerative sizes 
the minimum limit must be raised to 5 inches and the law must be rigorously 
enforced against spongers, buyers, dealers, and others who are concerned in its 
infraction. It is believed that most of the buyers and vessel owners at least 
would welcome more rigorous measures, which would work no hardship to any- 



506 bulletin of the bureau of fisheries. 

body if enforced on all without prejudice or favor. The difficulty now is that 
each man feels that the law will be broken with impunity by some of his com- 
petitors and that he may as well get his share of such profits as may accrue from 
disregard of the regulations. 

The amendment and enforcement of the law as suggested will not restore the 
depleted beds to their pristine productiveness nor prevent the partial depletion 
of beds at present more or less unimpaired, but it will prevent the ultimate com- 
mercial extinction of the sponges and will insure for all years to come at least a 
partial crop from all beds now known or which may be hereafter discovered. 
As to the foregoing there can be no room for discussion among fair-minded and 
disinterested persons, but in regard to close seasons the various suggestions that 
have been made from time to time are open to more or less difference of opinion. 
The following propositions all have their advocates: (i) The closure of all beds 
during the spawning season, (2) the closure of all beds for a part of each year 
irrespective of the spawning season, and (3) the alternating or rotative closure 
of some of the beds for a longer period while all other grounds are open to more 
or less unrestricted fishing. 

The first suggestion appears to me to be futile and ineffective. In the first 
place a difficulty presents itself from the circumstance that the sponge, at least 
in the warmer waters, spawns more or less generally throughout the year, though 
the greater number of embryos are emitted during spring and early summer. 
This, however, would be a minor consideration if much were to be gained, for 
the period selected for closure could be made to correspond with the time of 
maximum discharge of young, but nothing more would be accomplished than 
by closing the beds for an equal period at any other season of the year. Whether 
a breeding sponge is taken before or during the spawning season the loss is the 
same so far as its potential powers of reproduction are concerned. 

The close season embracing a part of each year, similar to that established 
for the scaphander in Florida from May 1 to October 1 , or the Tunisian regula- 
tions of like import, is of value chiefly in restricting the catch and leaving a 
larger number of sponges on the beds. If by an increase in the intensity of the 
fishery as many sponges are taken in the shorter period as would otherwise be 
caught in the entire year, practically nothing is gained, for the duration of 
closure is too short to permit the protected sponges to increase very materially 
in size and, as stated above, the protection of spawning as distinguished from 
nonspawning mature individuals is immaterial. Where, as in Florida, the 
open period is made to coincide with the season under which the fishery is 
most subject to difficulty and interruption, the regulation is made more effective 
in protecting the beds by a reduction in the profitableness of the operations 
and the consequent discouragement of increases in apparatus, personnel, and 
intensity of the fishery. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 507 

A somewhat different aspect is presented by the proposition to close the 
grounds in rotation for periods of a year or upward. This would tend to 
intensify the fishery on the open grounds but would compensate for this by 
providing periods of rest, recuperation, and growth. By periodically closing a 
portion of the grounds for terms of say two years, there would be given to 
many of the small sponges already set an opportunity to grow to marketable 
size, the sponges already marketable would increase very materially in size, 
weight, and value, and these two would in turn result in the production of a 
larger number of embryos and a heavier set of young. Notwithstanding that 
many of the spongers and others interested in the business believe to the contrary, 
a period of two years is not sufficient to produce a merchantable sponge from the 
egg, and the earlier set of the closed period would not be ready to market until 
a year or two after the area was again opened to fishing. Even upon the 
impossible assumption that all marketable sponges were removed during the 
first open year, if the young were properly protected in accordance with previous 
suggestions the good effects of the closure would be apparent over a term of 
several years. 

The practical impediments to the application of this system of protection to 
the waters of Florida lie mainly in the necessity for making the required sub- 
divisions of the grounds rather small and generally distributed, and the conse- 
quent difficulty in securing its enforcement. It would not be feasible, for 
instance, to close the Bay grounds north of Cedar Keys and open them south of 
that place for the reason that the water might be turbid in the latter area while 
clear in the former, to the utter prostration of the fishery and the ruin of those 
engaged in it. To guard against such contingency it would be necessary to 
divide the whole area into transverse strips, say 10 miles wide, closing alternate 
zones or every third zone, as the case might require, leaving the others open. 
It would be necessary to mark these areas adequately with buoys and to estab- 
lish a patrol to enforce respect for the regulations. Moreover, as most of these 
waters are outside of marine jurisdiction, it would appear possible to make the 
regulations effective to our own fishermen only, though the distance from foreign 
ports would probably act as a geographical deterrent to the depredations of 
foreign vessels. In any event the regulations would be difficult to enforce even 
with the assistance of several guard boats. This is probably the best and most 
effective type of close season, though presenting practical difficulties of enforce- 
ment; but it also is in essence a restriction on the intensity of the fishery and 
consequently on the yield, and whether it would add materially to the pro- 
ductiveness of the long-used hooking grounds is a matter of grave doubt; 
however, it might operate as insurance against ultimate depletion. It is prac- 
tically the method which nature already enforces in places by prolonged periods 



508 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU' OF FISHERIES. 

of turbid water, the effectiveness of which we can determine by a comparison 
of the present condition of the grounds with their past. 

Restrictions upon the character, amount, and location of apparatus and 
methods are designed either to suppress destructive or wasteful fisheries or to 
curtail the use of efficient methods which are not inherently destructive or 
wasteful, though they may become so in the employ of the reckless or unprin- 
cipled. Examples of the first type of legislation are seen in the prohibition of the 
use of the dredge in Florida, the Bahamas, Cuba, and Cyprus and its restriction 
to great depths off the Egyptian coast. There is no doubt that such regulation 
is in the interests of the fisheries. The dredge has no place in a well-regulated 
fishery in depths approaching those that can be exploited by other means. It 
may be effective, but it is also inordinately destructive, and the sponge fisheries 
of this day are in no condition to support unnecessary and preventable waste. 

The federal and state legislation restricting the use of the diving machine 
to depths of not less than 50 feet is an example of the second type of restriction 
of apparatus. Properly conducted diving is inherently neither destructive nor 
wasteful. Its chief menace to the beds, if the taking of young sponges be pre- 
vented, lies in its efficiency and the thoroughness with which it operates to 
denude them. It is intense in its effect, and the legislation directed at it is 
intended to confine and limit it and to preserve both the inshore and offshore 
beds by practically restricting its efficiency and the volume of its catch. The 
restriction of the scaphander to water deeper than 50 feet is absolutely necessary 
for the conservation of the beds already shrinking under the operations of the 
hookers. Later it may be necessary to protect the divers from themselves and 
fix a maximum depth beyond which they may not go. 

The three general means of regulating and conserving the sponge fisheries 
above discussed are applicable to the public beds, limiting the intensity of the 
fishery, aiming to secure and maintain what we have rather than hoping to add 
to it. They are restrictive and conservative rather than constructive, and with- 
out the discovery of new grounds offer little hope of maintaining the supply in 
equilibrium with the constantly growing demand. 

The fourth method, sponge culture, is on the contrary concerned with the 
sponge industry rather than the sponge beds. It is constructive, aiming to add 
to the sponge supply of the future without particular regard to the source of 
supply of the present. It apparently offers the only hope of permanently 
maintaining the sponge fisheries in those countries in which they are now estab- 
lished, though the discovery of extensive beds in other parts of the world may 
make it not absolutely necessary for the prevention of an ultimate sponge 
famine. As it is at present not applicable to the public beds, but even more 
than oyster culture susceptible of development by private enterprise only, dis- 
cussion of it is reserved for another paper. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 509 

X. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS AS TO THE FLORIDA 

SPONGE FISHERY. 

All known and exploited sponge beds, in whatever part of the world, are 
showing more or less marked indications of depletion, and in some places, 
notably the Key grounds and to a less extent the Bay grounds of Florida, there 
has been under average conditions a conspicuous falling off in the product. 
By the introduction of improved methods of fishing the yield has been tem- 
porarily increased in some places, but there is no reason for believing that these 
increases can be indefinitely maintained or materially augmented. 

Such depletion as has occurred is in part due to the taking or destruction 
of small sponges, but is attributable principally to the intensity of the fishery 
rather than to preventable abuses. The demand for sponges, especially for 
those which are employed in the arts and industries, is constantly growing. 
Countries which formerly used practically no sponges develop a demand with 
the growth of manufactures, and countries which for years have used sponges 
now require many more than they did a decade or two ago. In 1880 the United 
States used about $394,000 worth of sponges and in 1900 about $987,689 worth. 
In the fiscal year 1907, with a domestic crop of $854,583, imports of $488,426, 
and exports of $247,145, the apparent consumption was $1,095,864, but of 
these a considerable quantity were in the warehouses of the dealers at the end 
of the year. The increase noted is due in part to higher prices but largely to 
greater consumption. The demand is outrunning the supply and to satisfy it 
the beds are being scoured as never before. New and more efficient methods 
are being introduced, while the fishermen using the old methods on old grounds 
are taking fewer sponges individually but still find the fishery more or less 
profitable owing to the higher prices which they are able to obtain. 

The outcome of these conditions is inevitably the ultimate depletion of 
the beds or the economic limitation of their product. The world can produce 
annually by natural processes alone only a certain more or less definite quantity 
of sponges. It is obvious from the facts which have been set forth in preceding 
pages that many beds have reached their limits of productiveness, and that were 
it not for the higher prices of to-day they could not be fished with profit by the 
methods which proved lucrative in former years. A bed from which a fraction 
of the sponges has been removed has not the reproductive and recuperative 
possibilities which it possessed in its virgin state. Worked as intensely as they 
are to-day the sponge grounds can not improve; they are almost certain to 
retrograde, but by wise regulation some of them may be maintained in approx- 
imately their present condition of productiveness. 

The discovery of great sponge fields in places in which they are not now 
known or developed, in Australia and the Philippines, for instance, may provide 
for the future growth of the world's demands, but that will be of no value to 



510 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 

fisheries already established, however desirable it may be from the standpoint 
of the consumer. Exhausted or partly exhausted fisheries must suffer if brought 
into competition with those whose productiveness is unimpaired and whose 
product may be put on the market at a lower price. Those countries which 
have with forethought provided for the contingencies of the future are those 
whose fisheries will be best fitted to survive competition, or, should that not 
come, be in a position to reap the greatest profit from the increased demand 
for their product. 

To secure to the people of Florida the conservation of the natural beds, 
for the maintenance of the fisheries already established, to regulate those which 
may be introduced in the future, and to provide for an increase in the sponge 
supply to meet the growing demands of civilization, changes in the federal and 
state statutes are suggested to meet the following requirements in addition or 
amendment to those already provided for: 

i . The minimum size of sponges allowed to be taken, landed, or sold should 
be increased from 4 inches to 5 inches in their maximum diameter. This would 
prevent the present wasteful destruction of sponges commercially almost worth- 
less, would conserve the beds, and after one year would increase the income of 
the fishermen without materially decreasing it in the meantime. 

2. In addition to the restrictions now in force, the use of the scaphander 
should be prohibited in water deeper than 20 fathoms. This is intended pri- 
marily as a hygienic measure, to protect the divers from the evil results attend- 
ing work in deep water, but it will also indirectly protect the workable beds by 
maintaining outside of them a possible reserve of spawning sponges to supply 
them with young. 

3. Gangavas, dredges, trawls, and similar instruments for scraping the 
bottom should be prohibited in depths of less than 30 fathoms. This regulation, 
while not required by any present development of the fishery, will prevent the 
sudden unregulated development of a method which would undoubtedly be 
destructive to the inshore grounds. 

4. State and federal laws should be enacted for the encouragement of 
sponge culture in both territorial and extraterritorial waters, securing to private 
individuals or corporations the sole use, under proper restrictions, of suitable 
areas of the bottom for the purpose of raising sponges by artificial means. In 
case of further depletion of the natural beds, or with the growth of demand and 
the failure to discover new and more productive grounds, sponge culture offers 
the only possible means of prevention of a practical sponge famine. With the 
development of sponge fields in other parts of the world which would be serious 
competitors with the depleted beds of Florida, the practice of an economic 
system of sponge culture is the only means which would prevent the extermina- 
tion of the lucrative sponge business of the state. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPONGES AND THE SPONGE FISHERIES. 511 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

In addition to various papers in the publications of the Bureau of Fish- 
eries, the Deutscher Fiseherei Verein, United States Consular Reports, and the 
statistical publications of the United States, Mexico, Cuba, and the Bahama 
Islands, the following have been consulted in the preparation of this paper: 

Allodi, Rodolfo, et al. Relazion sull audamento della pesca maritima, Trieste, 1898. 

Cobb, J. N. The sponge fishery of Florida in 1900. Report U. S. Fish Commission 1902, p. 161-175, 

pi. 6-9. __ 1903. 
CoTTE, J. Eponges. In: 1/ Industrie des peches aux colonies. Exposition Coloniale de Marseille, 

1906, t. 1, p. 210-261, pi. i-ii, text fig. 7-8. Marseille, 1906. 
La peche dans les diverses colonies. Tunisie. In: L'industrie des peches aux colonies. Ex- 
position Coloniale de Marseille, 1906, t. II, p. 64-78, pi. vn. Marseille, 1906. 
FabEr, George L. The fisheries of the Adriatic, p. 96-97. London, 1883. 
Giacobini, Enrico. La pesca in Italia. Rivista Mensile di Pesca, anno vm, no. 8-9-10, p. 228-243. 

Milano, 1906. 
Godefroy, Joseph. L'6tat actuel de la biologie et de l'industrie des eponges. Revue Generale des 

Sciences pures et appliquees, t. 9, 1898. 
GourrET, Paul. La peche et l'industrie des Sponges. Memoires et Comptes rendus des seances du 

Congres International d'Aquiculture et de Peche, Paris, 1900, p. 297-320, 7 text fig., 3 pi. 
GraELLS, Mariano. L' exploitation des eponges a Batabano. Revue des Sciences naturelles appli- 
quees, 41 annee, p. 103-112.. Paris, 1894. 
Hyatt, A. Revision of the North American Poriferae. Memoirs Boston Society of Natural History, 

vol. 11, pt. iv, 1877, p. 11-84, pl- 15-18. 
Von LendEnfeld, Robert. A monograph of the horny sponges. 936 p., pl. 1-50. London, 1889. 
Lucifero, A. La pesca delle spugne nel Mare di Sicilia. Neptunia Rivista Italiana di pesca ed Aqui- 

coltura, vol. xx, no. 8 and 9, 1905, p. 1 13-145. Venezia, 1905. 
Rathbun, Richard. The sponge fishery and trade. The Fisheries, and Fishery Industries of the 

United States, sec. v, vol. 11, 1887, p. 817-841. 
Ravndal, G. BiE, U. S. Consul at Beirut. Sponge fishing in the Levant. Scientific American, 1902. 
"Rebus." Official introduction to Bahama fisheries. 18 p., published as handbook at International 

Fisheries Exhibition. London, 1883. 
SeuraT, L. G. L'eponge. Bulletin de la Societe Nationale d'Acclimatation de France, 48 annee, p. 

257-282. Paris, 1901. 
Smith, H. M. The Florida commercial sponges. Bulletin U. S. Fish Commission, vol. xvii, 1897, p. 

225-240, pl. 12-31, 1898. 
Notes on the Florida sponge fishery in 1899. Bulletin U. S. Fish Commission, vol. xix, 1899, 

p. 149-151. i9°i- 

Weil, Georges. La peche des eponges. Memoires et Comptes rendus des seances du Congres Inter- 
national d'Aquiculture et de Peche, Paris, 1900, p. 183-188. 

WolFrom, GusTavE. Les peches maritimes de la Tunisie. Bulletin de la Societe Centrale d'Aqui- 
culture et de Peche, t. xv, 1903, p. 69-73. 

Les peches des eponges en Tripolitaine. Bulletin de la Marine Marchande, t. 1, no. 2, 1899. 



Plate XXX 
Rock Island sheepswool sponge. Natural size. 



XXX 9JbH 
.3Si3 IsiirtfiM .agnoqa loowaqsarfa bnfilal >bo.H 



Plate XXXI 
Rock Island sheepswool sponge, top view. Three-fourths natural size. 



IXXX staH 
.ssia IfiiulBn zAiT.uo\-33i[fr .waiv qoJ ,3§noqa [oowaqaarta bnfilel Aooft 



Plate XXXII 
Florida Key sheepswool sponge. Natural size. 



IIXXX steH 
.ask IbiuJbM .agnoqa loowaqsaHa ^3^1 fibiioH 



Plate XXXIII 
Matecumbe Key sheepswool sponge. Natural size. 



IIIXXX e)sH 
•3si2 IbiuIbIA . 3 gnoq 8 loov/eqaarfe x?X 3dmuo3}6M 



Plate XXXIV 
Nassau sheepswool sponge, Bahama Islands. Natural size. 



VIXXX sibH 
•axis IeiuIsIA .gbnslal fimBr^a ,3§noqe loowaqaaHa UBeefiM 













n 



<*i 












*k. 



gm 





kr 



Plate XXXV 
Abaco sheepswool sponge, Bahama Islands. Natural size. 



VXXX subH 
.ssie IbiuJbM .sbnfilgl BmsHfiS ,3§noqa IoowgqsaHa oDfidA 







rfr*u 



'tl 



w>m 



Plate XXXVI 
Cuba sheepswool sponge. Natural size. 



IVXXX 9 jbR 



Plate XXXVII 
Florida Key yellow sponge. Natural size. 



IIVXXX steH 
.3sie IbiuJb14 .agnoqe wolta^ x 3 ^ fibnoR 






* 

i* 



y* - 



te 



/£ 



i 



* 



i 



*V~*r. 



■# 9fc * 



>^ 












-: __.^..\>.-,; -. 



-%: 



^D 



•^ 



1 




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„-*"iu-;*- 









&»*.' 












*•< 




lr** 









Plate XXXVIII 
Florida Key yellow sponge, top view. Natural size. 



IIIVXXX steH 
.asia IbiuJbM .waiv qol .agnoqe wollay ya^ fibhoH 



Plate XXXIX 
Florida Key yellow sponge. Natural size. 



XIXXX si*R 
.asra IbiijJbH .sgnoqe wolfey Ypsl fibhoR 






- 






■,:.■ ...... : , y . l . ? .:;.,v,^ y . ; .. . ; , S :; , .-. . 

"■".■ .'. ■■ :;'■-■.' ..•';•■;:'■;'■■:,■.'■--• J; . .;.' '"''': ; v '>' ■..-...■•''./. .■.■■."■■".-■' ■' 










Plate XL 
Anclote yellow sponge. Natural size. 



JX asR 
.3sia IsiuJbM .agnoqe wolls^ alotanA 



Plate XLI 
Anclote yellow sponge. Natural size. 



IJX XbH 

.axle IfiiulfiM .agnoqa woltax aJoIonA 




W¥k^fi$& 











Plate XLII 
Bahama yellow sponge. Natural size. 



IIJX 9i £ R 
.axle IbiuJeH .agnoqa wolla^ smfiHsd 



' 







Plate XLHI 
Bahama yellow sponge. Natural size. 



IIIJX ateH 



:r m:-~ : ^'t% : '^ 







Plate XLIV 
Cuba yellow sponge. Natural size. 



VIJX aJfilS 
.3X18 IbioJbH .agnoqe wolls^ sduD 



Plate XLV 
Florida velvet sponge, top view. Natural size. 



VJX alisH 
.ssie IbiuJbVI .wsiv qoJ .agnoqe tevtav fibnoH 



Plate XLVI 
Bahama velvet sponge. Natural size. 



IV JX alaH 
.asia IbiujbH .sgnoqa tevlav BmfiHfiS 



Plate XLVn 
Cuba velvet sponge. Natural size. 



iivjx ai*H 

.3X18 IbiuIbW .sgnoqs tevlav fiduD 



?- ; :G: :: \V; ': ; ::'v:.:': ;v -/v, ■':-;■.'.,;*. ;;.-;:;; 



Plate XLVIII 
Anclote grass sponge. Natural size. 



IIIVJX srtnH 
.asie IbiuIbH .agnoqa 32Big atobnA 



Plate XLIX 
Florida Key grass sponge. Natural size. 



XUX SlsH 

.ss'iz IstuJbH .agnoqg eesig \asl ebnoR 



Plate LI 
Florida Key grass sponge, top view. Natural size. 



.axis Ibiujb!/! .waiv qoi ,3§noqa zzsi-g ^3}} fibnoH 






':*■ * 




Plate LH 
Bahama grass sponges. Natural size. 



.ssia IbiuJbH .eagnoqe aasig BraBiifi8 










mmWwh 




Plate LIII 
Cuba grass sponges. Natural size. 



IIIJ 9JsH 

.9X18 IbiitIbM .aagnoqa aeeig bcIdD 



Plate LIV 
Florida glove sponge. Natural size. 



VU 3JbH 
.ssib [biuIsVI .agnoqa avolg sbhoH 



Plate LV 
Cuba reef sponge. Natural size. 



VJ sielH 
.3sig IbiuJbM .3gnoq8 \a3i sduD 



Plate LVI 
Fig. 1 . — Bahama reef sponge, side view. Natural size. 



Fig. 2. — Bahama reef sponge, top view. Natural size. 



IVJ sisH 
.ash IbiuJbH .waiv abia ,3gnoqs hai BmBrlfiS — . I .gR 



-3sia IbiuIbM .waiv qol .agnoqa taai BmBrffiQ — .£ .gH 



■■.■■■ 







% ?mW& 



♦ : ' ■;" ■ 



m%-jt 



■ i 



' I 



Plate LVH 
Cuba hardhead sponges. Natural size. 



IIVJ ateiq 
.3X18 IbiuJbW .aagnoqa bfiadbiBH sdoD 









si 



Plate LVIII 
Florida wire sponge. Natural size. 



invj sun 

.3sia IbtuJjbH .agnoqa siiw jsbhoH 



Plate LIX 
Florida wire sponge, top view. Natural size. 



XU 31bH 

.asia. IbiuJbM .W3iv qol ,3§noqg aiiw fibiioH 



9 



■s 



w 



1 1* 



>*■ 



?■' 



^■"'-ii^^s^ 



*■*&-.; 



,% 



u 




m\ 



® 







«*>»&. 



''mf? 



■«Nfc>- 






idfe 



Plate LX 
Turkey cup sponges, Mediterranean Sea. Natural size. 



.ask IbiuJbM .698 nBanfinsjibaM .aagnoqs quo ^ailiuT 







i, f:'# 



; l& 



i'- * 



dfi'fa'>V.*' '*■ 



Mb^. 





Plate LXI 
Fig. I . — Turkey solid sponge, Mediterranean Sea. Natural size. 



Fig. 2. — Toilet sponge, Mediterranean Sea. Natural size. 



IXJ XbH 

.3SK IbtoIbH .bsS nBsnjsnaJibaM ,9gnoqa biloe ^sjhuT — . I .-gil 



i 

.asia IbioIb/I .bsS nBanBiiaJ^M ,»gnoq.a lalioT — .£ .§H 



Plate LXII 
Toilet sponge, Mediterranean Sea. Natural size. 



IIXJ *bH 
.ssie IbiuJbH .bsS tiBanB-nalibaM .agnoqa telioT 




>a ' '. «'"♦ ■ 






**: 



» **.v *>. 






:mi 



+?y..?*i 



«y& 



: ■TsS^to-.iBp 



*kji*r ■■■« 



«■;•*■ 



?l*!^ 



&% *W*CV 



:-'C ■>: 



' 



.*,'.*.■ 



■ 



m\ 






■'■ 






'<8f n 



Plate LXUI 

Fig. I . — Philippine toilet sponge, Sitanki, P. I. Side view, natural 
size. 



Fig. 2. — Philippine toilet sponge, Sitanki, P. I. Top view, natural 
size. 



iuxj 9»*iq 

IfiiulBn .waiv sbi2 .1 .H .i^nfiliS ,3§noq8 telioJ aniqqilirl ! — . I .giT 

.ask 



Iswisn ,v/aiv qoT .1 .H .i^neliS .agaoqa telioJ sniqqilirR — .£ .grl 



i.wntw 



.*■■•;%■ 



• . V.' .. 





4b • •*- 



l« 



*,- : 



I 



.;. »■ 



■•?*&•■*■ * * 



41 W.. • 



L4 



Ai 






«- ••;«*■ K^- 









,4 



V * 






• •* 






fck 





Plate LXIV 

Fig. 1 . — Zimocca sponge, Mediterranean Sea. Side view, natural 
size. 



Fig. 2. — Zimocca sponge, Mediterranean Sea. Top view, natural 
size. 



VIXJ.alfiR 

IfiiuJfin ,waiv abi?. .bsS nBanBiislibaM .agnoqa BooomiX — . I .gil 

.ash 



IbiuJbh .waiv qoT .bsS nBsnBrajibaM ,3gnoqa BDDomiS — .£ .gil 















*|Vi" 



ff ''-IV' 














iWms* 




Plate LXV 
Honeycomb sponge, Mediterranean Sea. Natural size. 



VXJ 3 j 6 R 

.3sia IbiuJbI/1 .bsS nfianEnaJibaM .agnoqa dmoo^anoH 



Plate LXVI 
Elephant-ear sponge, Mediterranean Sea. Natural size. 



ivxj aisis 

.3sia IbiuJbH .bsS nBSflB-naJibaM .agnoqa ifia-JnsrfqaLH 



4 



<r 



